(Trinidad express) The police service will continue to partner with international cyber experts to identify the source of last week’s e-mail bomb threat.
While the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) identified that the server used is based in Germany and the ‘resolve host’ of the e-mail situated in Cyprus, locating the anonymous e-mail service provider is key to the investigation, the police said in a release on Thursday.
On April 28, over 50 primary and secondary schools throughout Trinidad and Tobago received a “bomb threat” via e-mail. The release stated that officers from all ten Police Divisions, along with teams from the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), the Cyber Crime Unit and the Explosive Devices Unit responded immediately to several calls from various schools. Thorough searches were conducted by bomb technicians, however, no explosive devices were found.
The TTPS under the supervision of DCP Intelligence and Investigation Curt Simon, the Cyber Unit as well as the RAU made an assessment of the situation, and concluded that the threats could be classified as a cyber “hoax”.
Further investigations were conducted which necessitated communication with international partners. The TTPS was able to identify that the server used is based in Germany and the ‘resolve host’ of the email situated in Cyprus. Additionally, two Virtual Private Networks (VPN), located in Switzerland and Panama were used to further mask the identity of the origin of the email.
Investigations also indicated that the email came from an anonymous mail service provider. Locating the anonymous email service provider is key to this investigation, the release stated. However, this is a complex process and the anonymous e-mail and anonymous e-mail server can remain hidden by utilizing a number of Dark web tools, the release added.
The TTPS said it remains resolute in its efforts to identify the source of the e-mail threats and will continue to partner with international/cross border cyber experts who will work alongside local experts and telecom providers.
