Going undercover online

Posting to online communities

The same technical risks that affect Web surfing and email also affect use of online communities.

Message boards, USENET Newsgroups / Google groups, Yahoo Groups and chatrooms may also betray your IP address - sometimes publically - meaning that other users can trace your true Internet connection.

The image below shows the headers that Google groups displays for a message sent to an Afghan newsgroup from an NTLworld email address. The sender used a BBC connection to the Internet and this is betrayed in the headers.

"you ain't from around these parts"

Aside from the technical risks associated with online activity, there are other ways that a covert message board operation could be blown.

Some online message boards have a transient population, and much like a bar at an airport departure lounge, there are no regulars. Everyone is a stranger. 

Other message boards are much more intimate and the regulars would immediately notice a newcomer (or "newbie" in message board-speak).

You may be familiar with the cinematic cliché of the piano player stopping mid-tune when the stranger walks into the Wild West bar. It can be like that online, when any stranger starts posting in an online community.

Don't be fooled by the apparent anonymity of message boards. Although "handles" (convenient, anonymous nicknames) are often used, the participants become familiar with each other. They may well be known to each other in everyday life.

If the message board is related to an underground group or contentious subject, the paranoia would be even more pronounced, with the regulars being conscious of the risk of infiltration by law enforcement officers, journalists or political rivals.

Community mainstays are very protective and many are very adept at spotting the technical signs of infiltration.

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