Report of the Interception of Communications Commissioner - 2016
Description:
A series of IP resolutions were incorrectly provided to a CSP.
As a consequence, the results of the resolutions were out by
one hour, risking the wrong account being attributed to the
offence.
Depending on the time zone for the original data, the SPoC
is required to convert the time into what each individual ISP
requires. The SPoC will first convert into Greenwich Mean Time
(GMT). For many ISPs, this is the only conversion required. In
others, conversion into British Summer Time (BST) is required
if the result places the event into a date when BST was current.
85 applications were initially adjudged to have been affected
by entering the wrong time into the portal.
Consequence:
Of the 85 incorrect applications, 2 returned results against
individuals unconnected with any investigation. No action was
taken against this individual.
Error Investigation 17
Error by:
Public Authority
Human or
Technical:
Human
Cause:
An IP address was misheard or mis-stated between the police
and a CSP.
Data Acquired:
Subscriber information relating to an IP address.
Description:
An organisation had serious concerns for the wellbeing of a
child who had contacted them via the internet. They passed
the child’s IP address to the police. Given the urgency, the IP
address, date and time were passed verbally to the CSP. It
was during this phase that a digit was misheard or mis-stated.
As a result, the subscriber details of the wrong IP address
were received. This property was visited by police. No-one
was at home at the address, but local enquiries indicated that
no children lived there. The police rechecked the results and
the error was discovered.
Consequence:
The police visited a property unconnected to the search, and
this delayed the search.
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@iocco_oversight