Fable video game team hunted down troll

garsands · 14 Dec 2016 at 13:34

Might be of some interest & nothing much more for me to add.

A video game industry insider has revealed how he helped track down a "troll" who had threatened to leak his company's secrets.
Sam van Tilburgh said his team had managed to identify the teenager and obtain some of his schoolwork, which it then published online as a warning.
The firm followed this up with its own threat to alert the youth's family to his activities.

Full story here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38315793

robfosters · 14 Dec 2016 at 13:39

I highly doubt the legal team were very happy when they heard this. Would have been better off ignoring him.

StriderX · 14 Dec 2016 at 13:39

Boy should have released anyway, Molyneux deserved it.

arknor · 14 Dec 2016 at 13:39

I dont get how people claim you can track an ip to a specific house.

I tried mine and it shows an area about half a mile in radius with my house on the very edge. for my GF's it does the same.

I bet they found his friend via other ways like reading his pms, or googling his email address/username to find details on other forums or social media websites.

also how is the guy a troll?

Rroff · 14 Dec 2016 at 13:44

arknor said:
I dont get how people claim you can track an ip to a specific house.

I tried mine and it shows an area about half a mile in radius with my house on the very edge. for my GF's it does the same.

I bet they found his friend via other ways like reading his pms, or googling his email address/username to find details on other forums or social media websites.

also how is the guy a troll?

Generally IP geolocation only narrows it down to the nearest major town or city and until recently mine showed my location as a city 50 miles away - not to mention often they aren't even correct at all sometimes taking some time to update.

jsmoke · 14 Dec 2016 at 13:48

So 1980's, have a read of this, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo's_Egg

To track someone via IP, they literally had to be on the phone to the nearest exchange who would run some kind of trace to the next exchange and on and on, almost following the correct wire kind of stuff,.

Leprechaun312 · 14 Dec 2016 at 13:53

arknor said:
I dont get how people claim you can track an ip to a specific house.

I tried mine and it shows an area about half a mile in radius with my house on the very edge. for my GF's it does the same.

I bet they found his friend via other ways like reading his pms, or googling his email address/username to find details on other forums or social media websites.

also how is the guy a troll?

jsmoke said:
So 1980's, have a read of this, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo's_Egg

To track someone via IP, they literally had to be on the phone to the nearest exchange who would run some kind of trace to the next exchange and on and on, almost following the correct wire kind of stuff,.

^ this essentially, you need to get in contact with the local exchange or broadband provider to find the exact address.

Jamie23 · 14 Dec 2016 at 14:02

jsmoke said:
So 1980's, have a read of this, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cuckoo's_Egg

To track someone via IP, they literally had to be on the phone to the nearest exchange who would run some kind of trace to the next exchange and on and on, almost following the correct wire kind of stuff,.

Just chiming in to say that's an awesome book, highly recommend

Malevolence · 14 Dec 2016 at 17:49

I see the media are still using he term 'troll' as a catch-all phrase for being a dick on the internet.