Ross was online with his notebook at the science fiction section of a San Francisco library when the police arrested him. He apparently had posted a question on a forum using his real name. He quickly changed to a pseudonym, but his "error" was enough to catch the attention of the police. The police had been looking for him because of some computer hacking, narcotics trafficking and money laundering activities.
How closely do the police watch what happens on the internet? How quickly can they act on this information? There are millions of routers on the internet, and millions more hosts. Each host may have several channels of data streams going simultaneously. Most of these are encrypted, especially if they run across wireless networks as public wi-fi services are. Even with the help of software to filter out keywords, I think it is impossible to track everything. Especially in a matter of minutes.
I am amazed to realise that internet traffic can be policed so quickly. We know that information stored on public servers such as Gmail is not private, as Google and the police have the ability to search these. But for them to find anything quickly seemed unlikely to me - until I read about Ross' arrest.
What do you think? Do police, hackers, data miners, etc. have the ability to track information that quickly? Or was finding Ross a fluke that happened in the police's favour?
In any case, the story reminds me that the Bible tells us to "be sure your sin will find you out". Do you think that is true?
Even if one can elude the police who has finite knowledge, it would be impossible to hide from God, who knows everything.
So what can we do? How can we handle our sin? Please share what you think. Thank you.
Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.
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