Last July, Michaud was arrested and charged with possession of child pornography. With a second warrant, agents searched the suspect’s home and found a thumb drive that allegedly contained multiple images of children engaged in sex acts. Pewter was unmasked last year as Jay Michaud, a 62-year-old public schools administrator in Vancouver, Wash. From there, a subpoena to Comcast yielded his real name and address. When Pewter connected, the malware exploited a flaw in his browser, forcing his computer to reveal its true Internet protocol address. The agency, with a warrant, surreptitiously placed computer code, or malware, on all computers that logged into the Playpen site. In order to uncover Pewter’s true identity and location, the FBI quietly turned to a technique more typically used by hackers. To reach the site, he first had to install free software called Tor, the world’s most widely used tool for giving users anonymity online. The user’s online handle was “Pewter,” and while logged on at a website called Playpen, he allegedly downloaded images of young girls being sexually molested.
