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 anindividual with no dedicated infrastructure or privileged information. Although an individual's ISP hasaccess to this information, it is kept private except in the case of a legal decision. Similarly, somebig Internet companies such as Facebook and Google might be privy to this information but it willnever be communicated as it is an industrial secret used for targeted advertisements. In the contextof the bluebear project, we show that it is possible for an individual to inconspicuously make the linkbetween social identity and IP address for all Skype users.