Linking a Social Identity to an IP Address

Linking a social identity such as a name to an IP address is generally believed to be difficult for an individual with no dedicated infrastructure or privileged information. Although an individual’s ISP has access to this information, it is kept private except in the case of a legal decision. Similarly, some big Internet companies such as Facebook and Google might be privy to this information but it will never be communicated as it is an industrial secret used for targeted advertisements. In the context of the bluebear project, we show that it is possible for an individual to inconspicuously make the link between social identity and IP address for all Skype users.