ERR News – The Ministry of the Interior wants to make it easier for the police to identify the internet protocol (IP) addresses of people who make suspicious comments online that are perceived as a possible threat.
In the wake of the Norwegian attacks, which currently appear to have been perpetrated by a lone killer, officials say cryptic internet postings may be the only forewarning, ETV reported.
Currently, law enforcement bodies in Estonia find it difficult to identify IP addresses, according to a police official.
"It is not an easy task," said senior commissioner of the criminal police, Anu Baum. "First, procedure takes place, with some basis for the query. No one will simply hand out an IP address to us. Additionally, if you want to put a wiretap on someone, you have to have court permission. It isn't as simple as seeing something and making a query and getting the answers."
Attaining international IP addresses takes even more time, Baum added.
The Interior Ministry's Undersecretary for internal security, Erkki Koort, argued that an IP address should be as public as an ordinary physical-world address. "In today's world, a computer's IP address should be identifiable without any official procedures, as it saves significantly on time when a crime is committed and makes it easier to prevent crimes."
One example, which ended with a person being apprehended, was a school shooting threat made from Tartu in 2009 on the US-based network 4chan.
Another person was fined this year for a rambling Facebook status. However, in that case there was no specific threat, although it was deemed threatening to other people and investigators.
Koort says that thus far the Interior Ministry has found no support for the proposal. "We will probably initiate the draft legislation ourselves," said Koort.
Security pundit Eerik-Niiles Kross said it should be easier for the relevant authorities to identify the IP address if they suspect that an IP address user could be dangerous to him or herself or others. "There should be no objection to that. Which does not mean that everything that people do on the internet should be under blanket surveillance," he said.
Norway and Estonia are similar societies, Kross said, and Estonia cannot consider itself immune to the possibility of such acts.
