By Neal Ungerleider

In an increasingly weird and tangled affair, Former CIA director David Petraeus, Marine General John R. Allen, Paula Broadwell, Jill Kelley, an unnamed FBI Agent and others all used various anonymous accounts and message-masking techniques pioneered by terrorists and teens alike. They thought they were communicating with each other with discretion and secrecy.

But FBI investigators found their way through almost all of it.

That's because they're practiced in the field of cyberforensics — detailed Internet and technology detective techniques used every day all around the world. When it comes to the vast majority of activity by Internet users, it's amazingly easy to trace fake email addresses and anonymous blogs back to their owners. Or, put another way, if the director of the CIA's undercover ops can be cracked, so can yours. Here's how.

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Source: Fast Company