Company discovers child porn on employee's work devices, police say

Blackberry began investigation after unusual cryptocurrency activity

Andrew Allen

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A Hallandale Beach man was arrested Wednesday after his employer found child pornography on his work laptop and phone, police said.

According to the arrest report, an investigator from Blackberry discovered pictures of what appeared to be prepubescent children on devices used by one of the company's employees, 53-year-old Andrew Allen. Some the photos were of children as young as 8 years old, the report said.

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Several Blackberry employees, including the senior director of global security, assisted the Hallandale Police Department in the investigation. Blackberry was able to extract the files from Allen's work devices so they could be used as evidence, police said. 

Blackberry said the company originally began investigating Allen because of unusual activity related to cryptocurrency mining.

Using the information provided by Blackberry, police obtained a search warrant for Allen's home in the 1900 block of South Ocean Drive. Inside the home, police found several hard drives containing videos and hundreds of images of child pornography, the report said.

Allen faces a number of charges, including possessing child pornography.