120
IPCO Annual Report 2017
Error Investigation 12
Responsible Party
Public Authority
Human or Technical
Human
Cause
Transposition
Data Acquired
Subscriber information relating to customers ID account number
Description
Inappropriate contact with a child via a social media site (grooming).
Officers submitted details of three different IP address date and times
all linked to the same customer account number. When the three
separate IP activities were entered into the CSPs portal, in the third the
SPoC entered a different customer account number. This led to the first
two results coming back to the same customer and the third to another
albeit within the same police area. Despite corroboration not being
achieved a package was sent out to the force covering both postal
addresses.
Upon receipt local intelligence checks flagged one of the addresses of
interest. It was this address that two of the three IP results had been
resolved to.
An approach was made to the other address for them to be eliminated.
Consequence
Police visit to a home of a family unconnected to their investigation.
Error Investigation 13
Responsible Party
Public Authority
Human or Technical
Human
Cause
Use of a corrupted and out date Macro to convert IPv6 addresses
Data Acquired
Subscriber information relating to an IP address
Description
A public authority investigation into harassment over the internet by
a named suspect. In order to prove the offence officers sought the
resolution of four IP addresses all of which had been used at the time
of contact. Three of the IPs had been captured in a version known IPv6.
The fourth had been captured in an older format IPv4.
To acquire the customer details from an IPv6 address the SPoC must
convert the string using a Macro. Once converted this new string is
provided to the CSP. An out of date version of the Macro was used
drawing back the same customer account for all three IPv6 resolutions.
Only in the resolution of the IPv4 address did the suspects appear.
Believing the suspect might be using a friends/family home broadband,
officers made contact with the customer whose had wrongly been
connected to the IPv6 results.
Consequence
Police visit to a home of a family unconnected to their investigation.