How Facebook and Apple helped in nabbing Kickass Torrents founder

Authorities tracked Artem Vaulin with the help of IP addresses registered on these platforms

When the founder of world’s largest torrent distribution site — Kickass Torrents — was arrested, little did he know that Facebook and Apple had a role to play in it.

Founder Artem Vaulin’s activities on both the platforms made his whereabouts easily available to the investigating authorities, making his arrest look like a walk in the park, according to a report in Gizmodo. 

Vaulin is said to have operated Kickass Torrents’ page on Facebook. The torrent distributor is a source for links to files that can help illegally download music, movies as well as TV shows  

How did it happen?

Since Vaulin was operating the fan page on the social media platform, his crucial details like internet protocol (IP) address and other such information was getting stored with Facebook. On issue of a warrant by US authorities, it could provide the same to the security agencies, the website reported.  

As soon as information was sought by the US government, Facebook provided the details and it was revealed that an ID— an@me.com — was being used to log in. The email server is owned by Apple.

Authorities then turned to Apple, who then gave out all the information on the email ID — tirm@me.com — to them. 

Where did it go all wrong for Vaulin? 

Vaulin used @me.com email address to make purchases on iTunes purchase. And as per rules, every a purchase is made on iTunes, the IP address gets recorded. 

Vaulin was also using the account to get alerts relating to the administration tasks on Kickass Torrents. 

Based on the IP addresses, authorities were able to zero in on Vaulin’s location and arrested him.