You’ve probably heard it before.
“Your IP address exposes you to vulnerabilities on the internet!”
It probably scared you at first but leisurely surfing the internet without care proved a more powerful drive than the concern of being tracked online. Or maybe this is your first time of knowing this. Whichever one it is, this article seeks to open your eyes to interesting real world events about the complications of IP addresses.
IP is short for “Internet Protocol” and IP address is a unique number for uniquely identifying a network device on the internet. Any internet enabled device has this number and through this IP is publicly identifiable on the internet. This has given rise the concept of IP geolocation.
IP-Geolocation involves tracking the physical location of a given device on the face of the earth using its IP address. Its a technique that has proven to be very useful in cybersecurity, advertising, ecommerce etc. GPS systems and apps are built with ip-geolocation.
However, while IP geolocation has a lot of good applications it can also lead to number of crazy situations as will be highlighted in this article. Below are a number of interesting real world events highlighting the various dimensions of ip-geolocation.
The Good
In 2014, Swedish police raided the servers of The Pirate Bay, one of the world's most popular torrent sites. The raid was conducted after years of legal battles with copyright holders who claimed that The Pirate Bay was facilitating piracy. The police used IP geolocation to track down the servers, which were located in a server room in a remote mountainous region of Sweden. The story shows how IP geolocation can be used to track down the physical location of servers used in illegal activities.
In 2010, a man allegedly stole an Apple iPhone from a woman on the streets of San Francisco. Little did he know, the phone was being used to test a new real-time GPS tracking application, and the woman holding it was an intern for the software company Covia Labs based in Mountain View, California. The company's CEO, David Khan, had sent the intern to demonstrate the software. The thief, identified as Horatio Toure, grabbed the phone and fled the scene on a bicycle. However, Khan was able to track the phone's every move using a live map on his computer. Nine minutes later, the police apprehended Toure, and the intern positively identified him as the thief.
In May 2016, Nicole Vander Heyden went out with friends for a night on the town but did not return home. She was found dead in a field a day later. The prime suspect in her murder was her boyfriend, Doug Detrie, who lived with her because blood was found in his car and garage. Also, he delayed in reporting her missing.
However, when he was interviewed and arrested, Detrie was wearing a Fitbit device that recorded data about his activities during the time Vander Heyden was murdered. The data showed a different story, which ultimately helped to clear him of the charges. The crucial evidence that helped Detrie was his IP geolocation data from his Fitbit device. This data showed that Detrie was at home at the time of the murder, and not in the location where Vander Heyden's body was found. The data proved that he could not have committed the crime, leading to his release from custody 18 days after his arrest.
In conclusion, the use of IP geolocation technology played a critical role in clearing Doug Detrie of a murder charge and ensure that the real perpetrator of the crime did not go unpunished.
The Bad
MaxMind is a company that provides IP geolocation services to businesses and government agencies. In 2016, the company was sued by a woman in Kansas who claimed that MaxMind's geolocation database had incorrectly identified her home as the location of hundreds of fraudulent transactions. It turned out that MaxMind had used the location of a nearby farm as the default location for all IP addresses that it could not pinpoint to a specific location. As a result, the woman's home had become the default location for many IP addresses that were actually located elsewhere. The case highlights the potential dangers of relying on a single IP geolocation provider for data analysis.
In 2020, a man named McCoy became the lead suspect in a burglary investigation after police used a geofence warrant to locate devices near the scene of the crime. McCoy's Android phone, which was linked to his Google account, had been located near the scene of the burglary three times within an hour as he looped through his neighborhood during his workout. The police turned to Google to identify users whose devices were located near the scene of the crime including innocent people who may have had nothing to do with it.
In McCoy's case, he received a notification from Google's legal investigations support team, informing him that local police had demanded information related to his Google account. McCoy was given seven days to appear in court if he wanted to block the release of that data. This experience left McCoy terrified, even though he had done nothing wrong.
This case highlights the vast amount of location data that companies such as Google collect from their users, which can be used by law enforcement agencies in investigations. Users may not be aware of the extent of the data that is being collected from their devices and how it could be used against them in the future. Overall, this case shows that IP geolocation technology has a dark side, and there is a need for greater transparency and accountability in how it is used by law enforcement agencies and tech companies.
The Complicated
Tor is a network that allows users to browse the internet anonymously by routing their traffic through a series of servers around the world. In 2015, a man in Austria was arrested after an IP geolocation service identified his Tor exit node as the source of a cyber attack. It turned out that the man was innocent and had no involvement in the attack. He had simply been running a Tor exit node, which was used by the attacker to route their traffic. Still he was classified as an accomplice to the crime which highlights the potential risks of running a Tor exit node and the limitations of IP geolocation in identifying the source of cyber attacks.
In 2018, Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro was the target of a drone attack during a public speech. The attack was carried out using drones that had been flown over the event and detonated explosives. The Venezuelan government used IP geolocation to track down the location of the drones and identified a number of suspects. However, it later emerged that the IP addresses used by the drones were spoofed, making it impossible to determine their true location. The story shows how IP geolocation can be manipulated and the potential limitations of the technology in high-stakes situations.
To Conclude:
IP geolocation is a powerful tool that has been used to track down cybercriminals, locate lost or stolen devices, and improve the accuracy of data analysis. However, the stories outlined in this article highlight the potential risks and limitations with the misuse of IP geolocation. As with any technology, IP geolocation should be used responsibly and/or in conjunction with other tools and methods to ensure the accuracy of its results.
With years of experience in the field since 2002, Ip2location employs an extensive research base and multiple granularity to provide accurate geolocation information.