IP Address Location Tracking Improved To Half A Mile Accuracy

By

Northwestern University researchers have developed a technique of pinpointing the physical location of IP addresses to an average accuracy of less than half a mile. The technique works by using servers with known locations to ping the IP address, and then working out how far away from the server the IP address is by how long it took the ping to reply. Repeated with several known locations, the accuracy is pretty stunning!

On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dogbut they might now have an easy time finding your kennel. In a research paper and technical report presented at the USENIX Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NDSI) conference at the beginning of April, researchers from Northwestern University presented new methods for estimating the exact physical location of an IP address tens or hundreds of times more accurately than previously thought possible. The technique builds on existing approaches but adds a new element: it uses local businesses, government agencies, and educational institutions as landmarks, helping it achieve a median accuracy of just 690mless than half a mile.

Comments are closed.