IP Address Honeypot
On a recent episode of the Criminal podcast, they mentioned an interesting case I was unaware of. Apparently, Patrick McDermott, in a presumed attempt to escape debt, faked his own death and fled to Mexico. From the Wikipedia page, it sounds like there may be some doubt about whether or not he is alive, however, a detail in the case is particularly interesting to me.
Dateline NBC set up a (now defunct) website called FindPatrickMcDermott.com. They promoted this site on their TV program and elsewhere, encouraging anyone to contirbute anonymous tips about Mr. McDermott's possible whereabouts. I'm not aware of any useful leads they had submitted, however, like most websites, their webserver logged metadata about all incoming requests.
This metadata, naturally, includes the IP address of the requestor. IP address can be fairly trivially mapped to approximate geographic location. Depending on one's IP lookup database, this mapping may be more or less precise, however, for little or no cost, just about anyone can geocode an IP.
Curiously, there was a disproportionate amount of traffic to the site from an area just outside Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Multiple IP addresses from that area would regularly visit the site. While the amount of visits may have been relatively small, it was unexpected, and the Dateline team became suspicious.
Working under the assumption that Mr. McDermott may be alive and frequently checking the site for updates regarding suspicion of his whereabouts, they decided to investigate further.
This is where the narrative on Criminal and Wikipedia read a little differently. Criminal reported that he was found using this information. Wikipedia makes it sound as though he was almost certainly found, but with room for some doubt, presumably because he became suspicious and left to remain at large.
McDermott - you gotta use Tor! Tor is an anonymous relay network that adds an additional layer of privacy to internet users. I mention it partially in jest. If he's truly alive and trying to avoid his obligations, I do hope he's eventually brought to justice. It's important to note that tools like Tor need to exist for important reasons other than being a scofflaw.
If you're someone that needs to protect their internet traffic due to fear of persecution, discrimination, etc., tools like Tor need to be available. There are also some who argue projects like Tor should be the default, not an option. In light of what we've learned about illegal surveillance within the US government, they might be right.
Although I'm not sure if it's what Dateline intended, this result is an interesting example of a honeypot. The Criminal podcast implied that McDermott is a vain man, causing him to regularly check what people are saying about him. I don't actually think it's vanity, but rather a survival strategy.
Examples like this ought to be under proactive review by the court system. Existing laws such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act are, in my opinion, very poor legislation drafted by people with a willful ignorance of the technology they restricted.
If McDermott had been brought to justice with Dateline's honeypot, should that have been admissible in court? I don't see why not, but I'm interested to hear and evaluate a salient point to the contrary.
