FBI uses 'secret surveillance program' to ID source of bomb threats

JulioJuliopolis
Digg
Thursday July 19, 2007

Wired reports today that the FBI tracked e-mailed bomb threats that were sent to a Washington school by sending the suspect "a secret surveillance program designed to surreptitiously monitor him and report back to a government server."

The technology publication says an affidavit filed in the case identifies the program as "computer and internet protocol address verifier."

"The exact nature of these commands, processes, capabilities, and their configuration is classified as a law enforcement sensitive investigative technique, the disclosure of which would likely jeopardize other ongoing investigations and/or future use of the technique," an agent writes, according to CNET, which notes: "A reference to the operating system's registry indicates that CIPAV can target, as you might expect given its market share, Microsoft Windows. Other data sent back to the FBI include the operating system type and serial number, the logged-in user name, and the Web URL that the computer was 'previously connected to.'"

The program, known as CIPAV, reportedly transmits information back to an FBI server in Virginia for up to 60 days.

Read the affidavit.