Majority of the public is surprisingly unaware of the existence, much less the definition, of the term policeware even if it has been already used by the United States government since 2001. There are two well-known incidents, in particular, where use of policeware has been acknowledged.

The more recent of the two referred to the quest of the FBI for the identity of a bomb threat hoaxer using email service provider Hushmail and a MySpace account. The FBI was granted permission by the courts last June 12, 2007 to use a spyware program called CIPAV. When implanted, the CIPAV would be able to send critical information to the FBI such as the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the person’s computer as well as other data found within the computer.

The suspect, identified as Josh Glazebrook, had been sending emails containing bomb threats to his former high school Timberline High of Olympia Washington. The MySpace account he used was under the profile name of Timberlineinfo. The suspect had then used the account to convince other students to display its link in their pages; parents of at least one of the contacted students had then reported the incident to the authorities.

Glazebrook had also used Gmail, the email branch of Google, to send bomb threats in the early weeks of June. One email had been shown to detail the general locations of the bombs and the time it would supposedly go off.

The FBI, using account logs from MySpace and Google was able to detect the IP address of the source of threats and trace it back to a computer unit located in Italy. It was then that the FBI had employed the use of CIVAC through an electronic messaging program like email and instant messaging.

How, exactly, it was able to uncover the identity of the suspect was not mentioned but brings to us to the next incident – the creation of the Magic Lantern, a virus program that would enable the FBI to install a virus or spyware program without needing a physical agent present in the house.

This sparked the interest of the press, prompting ZDNet to hold a survey of thirteen software security companies. Asked about the Magic Lantern, a firm declared its willingness to cooperate with the government but only if asked. Other companies informed the website of having received no order of such ilk from the government. MacAfee and Microsoft were the only companies that didn’t deign to answer the survey.

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