MySpace to provide sex offender data to state AGs

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Using an IP address is problematic.

You have the problem of laptop and mobile users, they get a DHCP lease at some Wi-Fi hotspot (or perhaps a city, as there are several cities all over the world that provide Wi-Fi as an enticement to gain business and tourists) and may not remain oin there for more than a few hours. The ISP will typically use a DHCP server to allocate addresses and the only record that they may keep (if that) is the MAC address of the host and perhaps log-on times of subscribers (which again could be mobile, thus IP data is fairly useless). They have to match a UUID (username) with the IP address, which can be geotracked (IP to city and country databases are fairly cheap) but that only goes so far.

While I am not advocating child exploitation (sans labor) or other illicit material, you have a problem when you go by IP address. Most IP addresses are dynamically allocated these days and not a good way to find a given host or user. Only with a static IP would it be easy for someone (an authority) to track a given host. There are a lot of evasion tactics that the perp could use (of which computer forensics may be able to track in time) but it is not as quick as you see on TV. It is even easier to conceal an IP enabled phone, I ordered one out of Europe and they work very well, making tracking that much more difficult (given free WiFi in some coffee shops, etc.).

Posted by: B.O.F.H.   Posted on: 05/21/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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