The Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier (CIPAV) is a data gathering tool that the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
(FBI) uses to track and gather location data on suspects under electronic
surveillance
Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing, or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as ...
. The software operates on the target computer much like other forms of
spyware
Spyware (a portmanteau for spying software) is any malware that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user by violating their privacy, endangering their device's securit ...
, whereas it is unknown to the operator that the software has been installed and is monitoring and reporting on their activities.
The CIPAV captures location-related information, such as
IP address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface i ...
,
MAC address
A MAC address (short for medium access control address or media access control address) is a unique identifier assigned to a network interface controller (NIC) for use as a network address in communications within a network segment. This use i ...
, open
ports Ports collections (or ports trees, or just ports) are the sets of makefiles and Patch (Unix), patches provided by the BSD-based operating systems, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD, as a simple method of installing software or creating binary packages. T ...
, running programs,
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...
and installed application registration and version information, default
web browser
A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...
, and last visited
URL.
Once that initial inventory is conducted, the CIPAV slips into the background and silently monitors all outbound communication, logging every IP address to which the computer connects, and time and date stamping each.
The CIPAV made headlines in July 2007, when its use was exposed in open court during an investigation of a teen who had made
bomb threats against
Timberline High School in Washington State.
The FBI also sought approval from the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to use CIPAV in terrorism or spying investigations.
See also
*
Backdoor (computing)
*
Carnivore (software)
*
ECHELON
*
FinFisher
*
Magic Lantern (software)
A magic lantern is an early type of image projector, an ancestor of the modern slide projector.
Magic lantern may also refer to:
Books
*''Magic Lantern'', an alternate version of the comic book hero Green Lantern
* Magic Lantern (novel), ''Magic ...
*
MiniPanzer and MegaPanzer
*
Network Investigative Technique
*
Policeware
Computer and network surveillance is the monitoring of computer activity and data stored locally on a computer or data being transferred over computer networks such as the Internet. This monitoring is often carried out covertly and may be comple ...
*
R2D2 (trojan)
*
Tailored Access Operations
*
Wiretapping
References
{{FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Computer law
Surveillance
Spyware