Photo: fauxels

Can police monitor your IP address?

Law enforcement can find out who this person is by subpoenaing the service provider for the IP address associated with that activity. A subpoena is a legal instrument used to compel individuals or companies to provide evidence, usually under the threat of a penalty for failing to comply.

howtogeek.com - Can Law Enforcement Really Track Someone Down with an IP Address?

Is there a trick to winning slots at the casino?

There are no simple hacks, slots tips or tricks to winning on slot machines. If you want better odds to win on slots, you need to: Choose the slots...

Last updated May 20, 2019

Do casino wins count as income?

Gambling winnings are fully taxable and you must report the income on your tax return. Gambling income includes but isn't limited to winnings from...

Last updated Aug 27, 2021

Make Your Bookie Cry And Pull The Hair By Generating $23,187

Promotion

The internet isn’t anonymous. Wherever you go, you leave breadcrumbs about who you really are. Some of these are bigger than others, but the biggest is your IP address. Armed with this, it isn’t difficult for law enforcement to discover your identity. Before we delve into the practicalities, let’s define what an IP address really is. In short, it’s a number that identifies a computer on a network. There are two types of addressing systems currently in use: IPv4 and IPv6. Furthermore, 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. Then, you take a step back. IP addresses are used on the entire internet for exactly the same purpose. Your internet service provider (ISP) assigns you an address, and it’ll 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. That’s because they’re typically used by things like servers, on which you’ll want to have an address that never changes. Dynamic IP addresses are most commonly used on residential or business premises. Unlike static addresses, these change. The ISP reassigns the network a new IP address every day or so. These are more cost-effective as they allow for easier maintenance and provisioning by ISPs.

Websites Keep Logs

Most websites retain detailed logs about their visitors, and for good reason. If you know how to read these, you can learn how your website is being used by external third parties. Now, let’s suppose a website like Facebook or Dropbox is used to commit a crime. Someone has created a false account to post content that breaks local laws. Law enforcement can find out who this person is by subpoenaing the service provider for the IP address associated with that activity. A subpoena is a legal instrument used to compel individuals or companies to provide evidence, usually under the threat of a penalty for failing to comply. Once they have the IP address, they still need more information to discover the person’s identity. Again, IP addresses identify computers, not people. To overcome this hurdle, investigators must first determine which ISP owns that IP address. However, this is much easier than you might think. ISPs typically own “blocks” or “pools” of IP addresses. They’re also recorded in public databases operated by RIRs (Regional Internet Registry). There are five registries, and each is responsible for administering IP addresses in their own region. So, finding an ISP is merely a matter of typing the IP address in the right database. If you search “IP lookup” on Google, you’ll find dozens of websites that will gladly do the job for you. You can also use the command-line whois tool and get the same results.

Are people leaving OnlyFans?

Thousands more creators shared on Twitter, Reddit and other online forums that they would be leaving OnlyFans in the coming months. Some...

Last updated Jun 21, 2021

Is 18 considered old for a horse?

Most experts agree a horse can be considered geriatric when he reaches 18 to 20 years of age. Jun 2, 2019

Last updated Nov 17, 2020

Promotion

ISPs Keep Logs, Too

Once you’ve got the ISP, it’s merely a matter of sending another subpoena. As we mentioned previously, these compel individuals or businesses to provide evidence. Failing to do so could result in a fine or prison sentence. Law enforcement then has access to the name and address of the subscriber, allowing their investigation to proceed. But what if your ISP uses dynamic addresses? It doesn’t matter, because ISPs, like websites, retain logs. From looking at their records, they’ll easily be able to pinpoint which subscriber was associated with that IP address at that specific time. This still doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve found the criminal, though. For example, if he used public Wi-Fi to commit the crime, authorities can only trace the activity to that public access point. However, they can then do things like examine security camera footage to see who visited that establishment or used that machine at a specific time.

Knock, Knock: It’s the Copyright Police

It’s worth noting that law enforcement agencies aren’t the only organizations interested in pinning names to IP addresses. Often, lawyers or agencies that work for entertainment companies harvest IP addresses used to download pirated content. They then issue subpoenas to ISPs for the contact details of those customers. Of course, anyone can anonymize her internet traffic by using Tor or a VPN. Many VPNs even claim they don’t retain usage logs, although it’s often hard to independently verify if this is true. VPN chaining (the real version of “bouncing” your signal around the world) makes this even more difficult. The authorities can only track an IP address to a VPN company, which they’d then have to force to reveal the real IP address from logs, which might not even exist. If the criminal connected to that VPN from another, law enforcement would have to work their way through multiple companies to find the details.

RELATED: Can Hackers Really "Bounce" Their Signal All Over the World?

Tracking IP addresses isn’t the only way online criminals are caught. For example, Ross Ulbricht, who ran the Silk Road dark web marketplace, was caught after revealing his real name on an online message board.

howtogeek.com - Can Law Enforcement Really Track Someone Down with an IP Address?

Which sport is the hardest on your body?

According to several studies about “science of muscles and movement” experts label boxing as the most demanding sport for an athlete. Boxing...

Last updated Jan 4, 2018

Why shouldnt you split 10s in blackjack?

If you split the 10s one time, you stand to win 63% and lose 37% on each split hand. That's a significant decrease in the number of hands won...

Last updated Sep 12, 2021

Promotion

How long does it take the average person to save $30000?

How long will it take to save? Savings Goal If You Saved $200/month If You Saved $400/month $20,000 100 months 50 months $30,000 150 months 75...

Last updated Nov 29, 2021

Promotion

Should you play pocket 2s?

When faced with a 3-bet after opening, you should almost always call with Pocket Twos. It's simply a great hand to have since you have a 12% chance...

Last updated Sep 27, 2018