KLANG: A man in his 30s was arrested after authorities found scores of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on his computer during a raid on his home in Taman Sri Andalas, here last night.
However, what left the authorities even more disturbed was that upon inspection, some of the files bore labels such as "Kids Porn" and "Rape".
The suspect, who works at an electrical appliance store, was at home when police visited the double-storey house where he lived with his family.
The raid was conducted by officers from Bukit Aman's Sexual, Women and Child Investigation Division (D11) and the Malaysia Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as part of "Op Pedo Bersepadu PDRM-MCMC".
Bukit Aman's Forensic Laboratory Division (D10) and Technical Assistance Division (D6) assisted in the operation, which was held across six states.
A check on his computer found that he had downloaded over 500GB of porn, including suspected CSAM via BitTorrent links.
For context, the file size of an MP3 song is around 4 megabytes (MB). A hard disk space of 500GB would be enough for 125,000 songs.
Folders upon folders, some labelled "Kids Porn" and "Child Porn" were also discovered on the computer.
One folder bore the label "Rape."
Checks also suggested that three of the folders were downloaded on the day of the raid itself while several others were downloaded earlier this year.
Further checks found that the suspect had also uploaded terabytes of data to other BitTorrent users.
At the time of writing, the authorities were still searching for more CSAM files on the computer.
The suspect was brought to the South Klang police headquarters for further investigations.
Police seized the suspect's computer and router as part of the probe.
The case is being investigated under Section 10 of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act for accessing child pornography and Section 292 of the Penal Code for possession of obscene materials.
Last week the New Straits Times ran a series of reports on the rampant sale of Malaysian-made explicit content, including CSAM, on social media and messaging platforms.
The NST's investigation also showed how CSAM content was being sold for as cheap as RM1 per video, raising concerns among parents over the safety of their children.
Bukit Aman's Sexual, Women and Child Investigations Division (D11) Principal Assistant Director, Senior Assistant Commissioner Siti Kamsiah Hassan had spoken on trends which showed that access to such pornography had made predators even more brazen, with some going to the extent of attempting to abduct children.
She also highlighted how easy access to pornographic content has led to severe addiction resulting in children, some as young as primary school pupils, becoming involved in creating and profiting from CSAM content.
The United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had told the NST how cybercriminals trafficking in CSAM were exploiting advanced encryption technology to avoid arrest.
Malaysia, it said, has forged alliances with the FBI and other international entities to leverage real-time coordination of operations to shut down priority and high-impact targets.