Re:Apple and Facebook helped bust the world's biggest torren...
by Jtsummers on Friday July 22, 2016 @09:24AM
(#12143332)
In the San Bernardino case they did not, due to FBI meddling, have a way into the phone anymore.
In this case, they had the purchase records of the individual:
Der-Yeghiayan was able to link the email address found in the
WHOIS lookup to an Apple email address that Vaulin purportedly
used to operate KAT. It's this Apple account that appears to
tie all of pieces of Vaulin's alleged involvement together.
On July 31st 2015, records provided by Apple show that the
me.com account was used to purchase something on iTunes. The
logs show that the same IP address was used on the same day to
access the KAT Facebook page. After KAT began accepting Bitcoin
donations in 2012, $72,767 was moved into a Coinbase account in
Vaulin's name. That Bitcoin wallet was registered with the same
me.com email address.
Tying the email address to the person. That's what was used. A purchase record tying the email address and the IP address together. Paired with the concurrent access to the KAT Facebook account. It doesn't matter what email provider he'd been using. It was the simultaneous access from the same IP to two different accounts. One his personal and one his business that the investigators needed. It may have been harder if it hadn't been Apple (or another US provider), but not impossible, just find other services that that email address was connected to.
In this case, they had the purchase records of the individual:
Tying the email address to the person. That's what was used. A purchase record tying the email address and the IP address together. Paired with the concurrent access to the KAT Facebook account. It doesn't matter what email provider he'd been using. It was the simultaneous access from the same IP to two different accounts. One his personal and one his business that the investigators needed. It may have been harder if it hadn't been Apple (or another US provider), but not impossible, just find other services that that email address was connected to.