The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) applied for a search warrant last month, requesting Sony hand over data on a PlayStation 4 user accused of using the gaming system’s online chat feature to sell cocaine, Motherboard reports.
Filed in the Western District of Missouri on Oct. 22, the warrant requested a wide-range of information on Curtis Alexander, known on the Playstation Network as “Speedola20.”
Alexander allegedly communicated with a confidential human source (CHS) over both an unnamed game’s audio communication function as well as the PlayStation Network’s built-in messaging service.
“Investigators believe that ALEXANDER likely believes that audio communication during the course of his participation in an online game is secure,” the warrant noted. “As such, ALEXANDER likely believes that he can use audio communication during game play on the PlayStation to arrange the details of a drug transaction.”
The warrant further stated that the CHS was able to purchase roughly 100 grams of a white powder from Alexander, who then told the CHS to contact him over the “game” later that evening.
The FBI specifically requested Sony provide all of Alexander’s communications, “including stored or preserved copies of emails, chats, or other messages sent to and from the Account, drafts of such, and the source destination addresses associated with each, the date and time at which each was sent, and the size and length of each.”
The agency even demanded other information potentially linked to Alexander’s account, such as his address, telephone number, and password, as well as the games he played and his progress in them.
Although the FBI ordered Sony to provide the information within 14 days, it remains unknown as to whether the warrant was actually ever approved.
As noted by Motherboard, the FBI was successful in obtaining a warrant last year that required Sony to hand over data as part of a terrorism investigation in Kansas.
READ MORE:
- Alt-right message board 8chan was served a search warrant
- How video game developer Valve got served secret subpoena as part of FBI’s counterterrorism fight
- Kim Dotcom thinks video game chats can outsmart the NSA. They can’t
H/T Motherboard
