The specifics of the case in question here aren’t really important, though threatening kids on the internet is certainly a serious matter. What I’m more concerned about is that there are FBI agents investigating online activity who think that the presence of a MAC address in network connection logs signifies that criminals are using Apple devices to commit their crimes.
Prior to executing the search warrant, FBI SA Nicol told me that, during execution of the warrant, I should look for a Mac computer, because the network connection logs provided by Jeffrey Savoy showed a Mac address, indicating some type of Mac/Apple computer or hardware was used.
Scarily, the person they searched had a Mac laptop, a development that can’t possibly end well for anyone.
For the benefit of those of you who don’t know (which should not include ones tasked with stamping out illegal things on the internet), this is what a MAC address actually is in the simplest terms I could find.
Short for Media Access Control address, a hardware address that uniquely identifies each node of a network.
It took me maybe 20 seconds to dig that up, by the way. Perhaps there’s not time for that sort of thing at the FBI. There are, after all, cases to investigate.
