Today’s economy is digital economy with internet as the enabler. Like any other tool it is also open to abuse. Cyber crimes where the suspects are utilizing a range of new technology innovations to ramp up attacks. Government and Intelligence agencies are realizing and adapting similar technology as a tool to effectively counter those attacks. Out of all the available tools, tracking IP address and subscriber logs have proven time and again to be a dependable way for authorities to track down a range of cyber crimes such as financial frauds, vengeful spurned-lovers, blackmailers, derogatory social media posts and terrorists.
Based on research conducted by the center for Internet & society, below are a few incidents on how various law enforcement authorities / investigating agencies have used IP address to trace individuals responsible for particular crimes based on their usage.
- In September 2009, a man was arrested by the Delhi Police in Mumbai for blackmailing classical musician Anoushka Shankar. The culprit had allegedly hacked into her email account and downloaded copies of personal photographs. He was traced by using his IP address
- In May 2010, an Army officer stationed in Mumbai was arrested for distributing child pornography from his computer. He was traced by the Mumbai Police after the German Federal Police alerted Interpol that objectionable pictures were being uploaded from the IP address he was using.
- In 2015 Hyderabadi woman, Afsha Jabeen was arrested for carrying out online recruitment for ISIS on Facebook
- In 2015 Abdul Basith, a 22 year old student and an ISIS sympathizer from Chandrayangutta was arrested when he tried to leave the country to join ISIS.
