Ever heard of a proxy server?

In the second case of young adult goofiness this month, an 18-year old has been identified as the one who posted a CNN iReport that Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack. (The Apple CEO is fine, by the way.) SEC investigators are not releasing a name and it's likely that the case does not involve intentional stock manipulation, although it could still be a crime to post very misleading and unproven news.

Meanwhile, David Kernell was indicted earlier this month for tapping into Sarah Palin's private e-mail account. Okay, so the lesson here is: using an assumed name on the Internet is like robbing a bank with a hat pulled over your face and with your driver's license pasted to your forehead. That's right: it's obvious that neither of these alleged perps bothered to use a proxy server. Their IP address, which is loaded into a Web server when you visit a site, is like a flashing neon sign that says: hey, I'm right here, come find me!

It probably works like this. Investigators know roughly when the hack and the iReport took place, so they look through the logs of IP addresses that attached to the server and start making inquiries with ISPs to get names. They call and start asking questions, and narrow things down.

An IP address is like a "micro expression" that reveals who you are and what you are doing without you knowing it. Of course, that's only true if you don't use a proxy, such as YouHide.com, which hides your IP address and makes you untraceable. Well, relatively untraceable -- a hard working investigator could probably go to the proxy server company and request the IP address for users during a certain block of time, and then trace you that way. And, if you hacked into a VP candidate's e-mail from a coffeeshop or said a CEO is dying on a user-generated journalism portal, they can even find out from the owner who was online at the time and find you that way.

I noticed today at the library that you now have to type in your library card to gain access to the Net. I suppose this is only loosely connected, but it could be a trend: tracing Internet use is becoming more important -- more people are fumbling around trying to hack into things. It feels a bit like Big Brother, though. I like being inconspicuous on the Web, especially at the library. Now the only question is: since so many Web 2.0 sites have increased security for reset your password, will other sites lock down on who can post what? Will we here at Computerworld require that you prove who you are before you post a comment? Is someone out there watching your every move? Yes, they probably are.

John Brandon is a regular contributor at Computerworld, a print journalist, music reviewer, and book author.