The Case of the Accidental Terrorist — An Internet of Things Detective Story: Part 2
Mattie Price led Detective Harloe to the trunk of the crashed vehicle. “It seems our would-be terrorist was attempting to stay off the grid,” Mattie said. “He has detailed notes and diagrams of local landmarks and key government buildings, to include police headquarters. He was actually using paper and a pen for his surveillance notes, and he was driving a manually controlled vehicle with the Vehicle Identification Number transponder disabled. Here’s his notes,” she said as she handed over the old-style Moleskine notebook.
“The sergeant said there was a bomb or bomb-making materials in the vehicle,” Harloe said. Mattie told him that the bomb squad had already come and gone, and took the suspicious device with them. They used a sniffer drone to exam the device for explosive compounds, and removed the device after rendering it safe.
Instead of a remote trigger, the device was programmed to detonate when two conditions were met: 1 — it was within one of several geo-fences that the suspect had pre-programmed into it, and 2 — the suspect’s body-worn sensor was a safe distance away from the device. Both sensors — the one in the bomb and the one worn by the suspect — would transmit their location utilizing the citywide WiFi. The geo-fences were placed around the potential targets.
“We got lucky,” Price said. “If he had crashed within one of his geofences and fled on foot or was transported by an ambulance before the device was discovered, the bomb would have detonated when he was out of the blast radius.”
“Yep,” he agreed. “We dodged a bullet on that one. Let’s start collecting and documenting the evidence. His body can be removed after it’s position and condition are recorded.”
An aerial drone hovered above the crime scene and projected an infrared grid over the entire crime scene. It’s cameras began collected images and measurements of every item in each grid. Some grids were further subdivided into smaller sections to accommodate the level of detail needed for very small fragments or items in close proximity to each other. Vehicle debris and personal effects were digitally tagged and uploaded to the case file. The actual items would be collected and bagged by the arachnid-like ground drones. These varied in size to accommodate the different size and weight of various pieces of evidence. They absorbed fluids to analyze chemical composition, blood typology, etc. They also lifted fingerprints and recorded the IP address of all tagged devices within the crime scene. Those tagged devices will have exchanged data with a multitude of sensors as they moved around or other tagged devices moved around them. Of course, not all tagged devices talked to every other tagged device, but devices from the same manufacturer or serving similar purposes may share diagnostic data to ensure proper functionality. That information would be available from those companies through the judicial subpoena process. This would allow the creation of a breadcrumb diagram showing the movement of all tagged devices in question. The path of these devices will occasionally converge at node points in the breadcrumb diagram that may show relevant events in the timeline of the case.
“Were the sensors in the bomb and on his wearable shielded?” Harloe asked. “Yes and no,” she replied. “They became active about one hour before the vehicle collision, so he was apparently on his way to plant the bomb.” “Well, that will impede our ability to track the full movements of the detonator and his wearable,” he said. “How about the vehicle?” “Well, like I mentioned earlier, the VIN transponder was disabled” Price observed. “That will have certainly raised red flags every time he passed by a city traffic sensor. There will definitely be automated alerts and biometric scans from the city’s camera and sensor system. It’s not a good idea to try to drive around in a vehicle without a functioning transponder. You’re just asking for a lot of unwanted attention. I’m sure there are license plate images and facial biometric scans on file. Why he wasn’t concerned about us learning his identity after the fact, I can’t imagine. Maybe his appearance was altered or his windshield was treated to distort the camera images and render the biometric scans useless.”
“Let’s do a back trace on the vehicle as quickly as possible. Hopefully, before any potential accomplices realize that the plan has failed and start covering their digital tracks,” Harloe suggested. “Also, just because he shielded the detonator and his wearable, there are dozens of other sensors in his personal belongings and built into his vehicle. They will have been betraying their whereabouts from their inception. We can back trace all of those connected devices as well and see what story they have to tell. From there, we can start connecting the dots.”
To be continued . . .
