What to do when accidental downloading of images is reported

From time to time, material of an illegal or undesirable nature may be downloaded onto the hard disc of a computer on the CUDN without the person involved intending to do so.

Sometimes the images might arrive on a hard disc as an e-mail attachment to a piece of spam. At other times the image might be downloaded by clicking on a link with a misleading name or even by accident. The person involved may be distressed by the event and wish to report the incident.

We can only recommend that the material is deleted from the computer as soon as possible. If the user wishes, they may report the incident to the CERT team or to the Internet Watch Foundation but only if the material is clearly illegal.