Security News > 2020 > June > Identifying a Person Based on a Photo, LinkedIn and Etsy Profiles, and Other Internet Bread Crumbs

Interesting story of how the police can identify someone by following the evidence chain from website to website.

According to filings in Blumenthal's case, FBI agents had little more to go on when they started their investigation than the news helicopter footage of the woman setting the police car ablaze as it was broadcast live May 30.

The top review on her page, dated just six days before the protest, was from a user identifying herself as "Xx Mv," who listed her location as Philadelphia and her username as "Alleycatlore."

A Google search of that handle led agents to an account on Poshmark, the mobile fashion marketplace, with a user handle "Lore-elisabeth." And subsequent searches for that name turned up Blumenthal's LinkedIn profile, where she identifies herself as a graduate of William Penn Charter School and several yoga and massage therapy training centers.

On her forearm, agents discovered, was the same distinctive tattoo that investigators first identified on the arsonist in the original TV video.

News URL

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/06/identifying_a_p.html