A Tennessee Tech expert said bomb threats and swatting incidents like those faced by the Putnam County Schools over the last several days are easier than ever through anonymous internet services
Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach Center Assistant Director Regis Billings said these callers often use Voice over IP systems or computerized telephone networks to separate their true identities from the calls. Billings said some individuals abuse stolen online accounts or credit cards to make calls to traditional landlines while remaining anonymous.
“There are services out on the internet that are capable of doing this,” Billings said. “A lot of these are either VoIP, voice over IP, or basically computerized telephone systems that you can sign up for typically anonymously or with a stolen credit card or like a hacked account online. And that allows you to basically, you know, bifurcate your true self, separate your true self from these services that are out there and be able to conduct phone calls over them to the traditional landline or traditional telephone systems.”
Billings said law enforcement has become proficient at tracking domestic calls by working with large providers like Google. Billings said the process becomes significantly more difficult when the calls originate from overseas because some countries do not cooperate with United States law enforcement.
“Where it starts to break down is where it leaves our borders,” Billings said. “And so if the threat actors, if the bad guys are overseas, they typically have a harder time tracking this stuff down because not all countries tend to play nicely with the United States and United States law enforcement. We see a lot of nation-states harboring threat actors that do this.”
Billings said some nation-states use these hoaxes in conjunction with other cyber activities to drain human capital and resources within the United States.
“It’s actually very difficult to tell if these would just be knuckle-headed kids trying to get out of school for a day as the weather’s nice, or if it’s like this concentrated effort by another nation-state just to drain some of our resources, specifically as it relates to human capital and our responses here in the US,” Billings said.
Billings said an anarchist group known as 764 provides online training for these activities to people who want to frustrate the government. Billings said these hoaxes create a dangerous drain on local law enforcement partners who must commit a large response to ensure the safety of children.
“Because law enforcement is being taken away from the ability to potentially save a life elsewhere because they’re going to take these types of hoaxes very seriously and commit a large response in the name of safety, in the name of safety for children, and in the name of safety for a lot of people,” Billings said. “And so they’re not now able to respond to potentially another real-world event that’s going on.”
Billings said a Tennessee man died during a swatting event several years ago after suffering a medical issue during an interaction with law enforcement.
Billings said parents must monitor what their children are doing online because these crimes can be committed through a simple cell phone.
“Adolescents, kids, teenagers, again, understand that like people have lost their lives in swatting events in the past and that law enforcement is being committed to something that’s a hoax where they could be doing real life-saving activity,” Billings said. “And so kids, teenagers, as you’re hearing this, if you hear somebody talking about it or you know who did it, I would very much say please come forward because we have to take these seriously.”