Dotcom May Have Been Spied On Weeks Before New Zealand Authorities Admit

The case against Kim Dotcom and his website Megaupload continues to confuse and astound many people who are following the trial. The New Zealand Herald claims to have obtained details showing that telecom engineers working for a technology services company called Gen-I have found evidence that Dotcom's Internet connection at his mansion in New Zealand was being monitored weeks before the New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau admits to.

An investigation that looked into the dedicated Internet connection running from the Dotcom mansion to the Sky Tower in Auckland is underway. Dotcom reportedly had a dedicated Internet connection to help him on his quest to become the top-ranked Modern Warfare 3 player in the world. Dotcom was apparently the number one ranked player in the game before he was arrested.

During Dotcom's quest to achieve the number one ranking in the game, staff at Gen-I began an investigation looking into the amount of time it took the Internet signal from the mansion to reach offshore Xbox servers. The amount of time that it took data from Dotcom's Xbox to reach the Xbox server increased from 30 ms to 180 ms, which is a huge increase for a gamer.

Engineers for the ISP used a Trace Route search and discovered that the Internet signal from Dotcom's home was being diverted inside New Zealand. During the course of the investigation engineers determined that where the Internet traffic had previously needed two hops to reach the servers, it was now taking five. The indication from the investigation is that authorities in New Zealand may have been spying on Dotcom for longer duration than it has previously admitted to sparking new cries for investigation into the government's surveillance efforts in the case.

[via NZHerald]