Microsoft reports its own employee for suspected possession of child pornography

REDMOND, Wash. — A Microsoft employee was arrested Thursday, accused of possessing child pornography.

Gregory Rentfro, 49, of Duvall, describes himself as a "senior security goon" for Microsoft on his Facebook profile.

Detectives investigated the case after Microsoft alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that “one of their customers had uploaded four images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct,” according to court documents. The documents do not state whether Microsoft knew at the time that this customer was an employee.

A Microsoft spokesperson told KIRO 7 on Friday, “This is a law enforcement matter; the employee is on leave while it's being investigated.”

An investigator wrote in court documents: “Rentfro admitted to finding depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct from the Internet. He said that he’d been saving them to an external hard drive until Microsoft closed his OneDrive account.”

Investigators also said he poses a risk to his own child. As of Friday evening, Rentfro is in the King County Jail on a $75,000 bond.

Microsoft runs a Cybercrime Center that frequently alerts authorities to potential violations of the law. In November 2013, KIRO 7 learned about the program’s efforts to fight three areas of cybercrime: piracy and counterfeiting, malware and botnets, and child exploitation.

In 2009, Microsoft partnered with Dartmouth College to develop PhotoDNA, a technology that aids in finding and removing some of the “worst of the worst” images of child sexual abuse from the Internet.

Microsoft leverages this technology on its own product and services. More than 100 organizations, including Facebook and Twitter, non-governmental organizations and law enforcement use PhotoDNA.

Cox Media Group