The Internet is not anonymous. Wherever you go, you leave breadcrumbs on who you really are. Some of these are larger than others, but the largest is your IP address. Armed with this, it is not difficult for the police to discover his identity.
What are IP addresses?
Before we delve into the practicalities, let’s define what an IP address really is. In short, it is a number that identifies a computer on a network. There are two types of addressing systems currently in use: IPv4 and IPv6.
In addition, there are two categories of IP addresses. Private IP addresses are used to identify machines on a closed network. Your home Wi-Fi network, for example, is a private IP address. To allow your PC to talk to your game console, your router assigns each device a unique identifier.
So, you take a step back. IP addresses are used throughout the Internet for exactly the same purpose. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) assigns you an address, and it will take one of two forms: static or dynamic.
Static IP addresses are fixed. Think of them as your phone number. Unless you deliberately choose to get a new one, it remains the same. This is because they are generally used by things like servers, where you want to have an address that never changes.
Dynamic IP addresses are most commonly used in residential or commercial premises. Unlike static addresses, they change. The ISP reassigns a new IP address to the network approximately every day. These are more cost-effective since they allow easier maintenance and provisioning by ISPs.
RELATED: How do IP addresses work?
Websites keep records
Most websites keep detailed records of their visitors, and for good reason. If you know how to read them, you can learn how external third parties use your website.
Now, suppose a website like Facebook or Dropbox is used to commit a crime. Someone has created a fake account to post content that violates local law.
Police can find out who this person is by quoting the service provider for the IP address associated with that activity. A subpoena is a legal instrument that is used to compel individuals or companies to present evidence, generally under the threat of a default sanction.
Once they have the IP address, they still need more information to discover the identity of the person. Again, IP addresses identify computers, not people. To overcome this hurdle, researchers must first determine which ISP owns that IP address.
However, this is much easier than you think. ISPs typically have “blocks” or “groups” of IP addresses. They are also registered in public databases operated by RIR (Regional Internet Registry). There are five registries, each of which is responsible for managing IP addresses in its own region. Therefore, finding an ISP is simply a matter of typing the IP address into the correct database.
If you search for “IP Search” on Google, you will find dozens of websites that will gladly do the work for you. You can also use the command line whois tool and get the same results.
ISPs also keep records
Once you have the ISP, it’s just a matter of sending another citation. As mentioned above, these compel individuals or companies to present evidence. Failure to do so could result in a fine or a prison sentence.
The police then have access to the subscriber’s name and address, allowing their investigation to continue.
But what if your ISP uses dynamic addresses? It doesn’t matter, because ISPs, like websites, retain records. By looking at their records, they will be able to easily identify which subscriber was associated with that IP address at that specific time.
However, this does not necessarily mean that you have found the criminal. For example, if you used public Wi-Fi to commit the crime, authorities can only track activity to that public access point. However, they can do things like examine the footage from the security camera to see who visited that establishment or used that machine at a specific time.
Knock, Knock: it’s the copyright police
It is worth noting that law enforcement agencies are not the only organizations interested in naming IP addresses. Often lawyers or agencies working for entertainment companies obtain IP addresses that are used to download pirated content. They then issue citations to ISPs for the contact details of those customers.
Of course, anyone can anonymize their Internet traffic using Tor or a VPN. Many VPNs even claim that they do not retain usage logs, although it is often difficult to independently verify if this is true.
VPN chaining (the actual version of “bouncing” your signal around the world) makes this even more difficult. Authorities can only trace an IP address to a VPN company, which they would then have to force to reveal the actual IP address of the records, which might not even exist. If the criminal connected to that VPN from another, the police would have to fight their way through multiple companies to find the details.
RELATED: Can hackers really “bounce” your signal around the world?
Tracking IP addresses is not the only way to catch criminals online. For example, Ross Ulbricht, who ran the Silk Road dark web market, was caught after revealing his real name on an online message board.
