Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: LAURE BOYER / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 18:38 p.m., October 19, 2023

Thursday was again marked by bomb threats, leading to the evacuation of several high schools, airports, and even the Palace of Versailles for the fourth time in less than a week. Law enforcement agencies have several ways to track down the culprits.

Going to the Palace of Versailles these days is first and foremost about wondering if you will be able to finish your visit. The monument was evacuated again on Thursday due to a bomb threat. For the fourth time in less than a week. These incidents have multiplied since the death of French teacher Dominique Bernard, who was murdered with a knife by a terrorist in Arras last Friday. High schools, tourist attractions, but also airports are mainly targeted. Fourteen of them were victims on Wednesday.

Article 322-14 of the Criminal Code provides for penalties for offenders. Two years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros. On Wednesday, Justice Minister Éric Dupond-Moretti advocated firmness against these "little puppets" who will be "found" and "punished", he promised. In a fraught international context, marked by the bloody attack by Hamas on Israeli territory on 7 October, followed by the response of the Jewish State, or by the terrorist attack that occurred in Brussels on Monday, the forces of law and order are taking the phenomenon seriously.

A requisition made to the operators

The latter have several means at their disposal to unmask those responsible, but it all depends on the channel favoured by the initiator of the bomb threat and in particular on the "degree of vice and technicality of the perpetrator", says Patrice Ribeiro, of the Alliance trade union bloc. Nevertheless, a method seems to be emerging lately. "Especially in high schools and colleges, it's mostly threatening emails," said Thierry Clair, deputy secretary general of the Unsa Police. In this case, "a requisition is made to the various operators" in order to obtain the IP address of connection. Response times vary depending on the number of people involved in the case, but also on the consequences caused. In any case, it is, as a rule, quite easy to trace back to the source.

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"Even if they send it from a co-working space, we'll know who was there at the time, we can also determine who entered the space, if their phone beeped, if they stopped, etc.," Ribeiro said. The same goes for a simple phone call, including a masked number. The data provided to the investigators by the operators made it possible to trace the individual without difficulty. Especially since each operator has a fully dedicated service. "All this is always done under the aegis of an independent magistrate or judge," says Patrice Ribeiro. Operators are then legally obliged to comply with the injunctions made to them.

What about VPN users?

This is not the case for platforms such as X (ex-Twitter), Meta or Tiktok. This makes investigations slower. "But as soon as it is considered that it undermines the security of the state, technical means make it possible to identify them. But that's more a matter for the intelligence services," Ribeiro said.

The culprits sometimes try to be more cunning and use a VPN, a virtual private network, which allows you to relocate your IP address abroad, to a server located several thousand miles away. "Despite this, the technique and the degree of expertise of the police on these technologies make it possible to trace it back to the source. And fortunately, because otherwise it would mean that even the anti-terrorist services would be completely helpless," says Patrice Ribeiro.

On the other hand, there is one scheme that can deliver total impunity to the guilty: that of messages from foreign services. "Like Russian hackers, for example. The person pretends to be a high school student or whoever he wants, he will send it from St. Petersburg, it goes through 10,000 servers around the world and it's impossible to trace," warns the policeman, who is however reassuring: "This is not the profile of people we are currently observing." He concluded by assuring that, regardless of the importance of the investigations carried out, the individuals at fault "are inevitably caught".