On May 15th, 2018, a man from Allen city Texas was arrested on suspicion of possessing child sexual abuse material and other explicit content but little did authorities know the man kept a trove of 58 terabytes of child sexual abuse material related data – Yes, 58 terabytes.
The 39-year-old Richard Belden kept the data in different electronic devices which have now been seized. Although the exact number of electronic devices used by Belden for storing the data is unknown, 58 terabytes of data mean videos worth thousands of hours requiring hundreds of devices to be stored – A terabyte is more precisely defined as 1,024 gigabytes (GB).
See: Man caught downloading child porn during raid; gets 10 years in prison
According to a tweet from Collin County Sheriff’s Office, its Child Exploitation Unit and Plano Police Department executed a search warrant with the assistance of Allen Police Department at a residence for possession of child sexual abuse material – Detectives interviewed and ultimately arrested and charged Belden with possession of child sexual abuse material
“The Collin County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the National Computer Forensic Institute and the United States Secret Service for the training and equipment they continually provide which makes these types of investigations possible,” the sheriff’s office said.
Image credit: Collin County Sheriff’s Office/Twitter
If you know someone involved in such explicit activities, report it to your local law enforcement authorities, Interpol or users in the United States can file a report on the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)’s website Cybertipline or call 1-800-843-5678.
It is worth noting that from now on we at HackRead will avoid using the term “child pornography” when describing videos or images of sexual abuse of children. Other, more appropriate terminology includes the term “child sexual abuse material”.
See: Ex-cop and child porn suspect to remain in jail until he decrypts drives
