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EU e-Evidence IP Address Tracing: Overcoming Technical Bottlenecks & How to Connect

  • Writer: Tina Rosén
    Tina Rosén
  • 24 minutes ago
  • 3 min read

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In Part 2, we looked at the operational flows and volumes. In this third part of our series, we tackle the realities of IT within the e-Evidence framework. How do you handle the massive data volumes associated with IP address tracing, and how do you physically connect your network to the e-CODEX grid?



The hidden e-evidence request volume challenge: IP address tracing


Don't overlook IP address tracing. For many telecom and internet service providers, requests to identify the user behind an IP address (Subscriber Identity) constitute the single largest volume of incoming queries.



The CGNAT compliance trap: Why IP alone fails

With the rise of CG-NAT (Carrier-Grade NAT), a simple IP address is no longer enough. To comply with these requests, you must be able to query your NAT logs by

Source IP + Source Port + Timestamp.

IP ADDRESS

PORT

DATE

TIME

82.10.10.1

1024

2025-03-20

02:35-02:40


The e-CODEX effect: Automating cybercrime investigations

Expect a surge in these e-evidence requests from foreign police forces investigating cybercrime (fraud, hacking), where your IP address is the only digital footprint left by the suspect. If your systems cannot automatically correlate NAT logs with subscriber IDs, this volume will overwhelm a manual team.



A person in a blue shirt walks briskly through a bright, yellow-lit server room with glass cabinets on both sides.



The technical bottleneck: Handling the CGNAT data tsunami


To support accurate IP address tracing, telecom service providers must overcome a massive scalability challenge. The widespread use of CGNAT (Carrier-Grade NAT) means that every single user connection generates a new log entry, resulting in terabytes of NAT logs every day.



The CGNAT data volume

Finding the "needle in the haystack", resolving a specific Public IP, Source Port, and Timestamp to a single subscriber, requires scanning billions of CGNAT records. Without specialized indexing, locating a specific session becomes a resource-intensive task.


The performance gap

If your Data Retention system is merely a passive "data lake," a single IP address tracing query can take hours to complete. When e-CODEX begins delivering multiple orders per day, slow retrieval times will create a backlog, making it impossible to meet the mandatory 8-hour emergency deadline.


To avoid penalties, you need a high-performance mediation platform like REX, capable of indexing massive volumes of NAT logs in real-time to deliver search results in seconds, not hours.



Flowchart illustrating e-CODEX request process between issuing and enforcing states. Key steps: issuance, transfer, processing, delivery.


Connecting to the grid: e-CODEX & technical resources


The EU-LISA "decentralized IT system" e-CODEX, is the mandatory pipe for this communication. It ensures that a judge in Italy can securely send an order to an ISP in Sweden without either party needing to know the other's internal IT architecture.


Technical implementation & resources 

For telecom and internet service providers planning their IT roadmap, the European agency for large-scale IT systems (eu-LISA) has released key documentation:


The access point map

Curious about the readiness of other nations? EU-LISA maintains a list of authorized e-CODEX Access Points and the digital procedural standards (DPS) applied in each country. View the list of access points here.


The Installation Guide: For technical teams looking to deploy the Connector (the reference implementation software), the official guide details the architecture, security requirements, and installation steps. Download the Guideline for Technical Installation of e-CODEX here.


Note: While Sweden's Försäkringskassan operates the national access point for authorities, private CSPs and ISPs must establish their own connection, either by installing the Connector (for high volumes) or using a secure Web Portal (for low volumes).




GDPR & NIS2: The compliance intersection


This new workflow does not exist in a vacuum.


GDPR

The regulation provides the legal basis for processing, but telecom service providers are strictly liable for data minimization. You must ensure that you do not accidentally over-disclose data (e.g., sending a whole month of logs when only 2 days were requested).


NIS2

The security standards for e-CODEX align closely with NIS2 requirements. If you are an "essential entity" under NIS2, your lawful interception interface is a critical system that requires robust encryption and access control.



Conclusion: This is an integration project, not a software install


Connecting to e-CODEX is not as simple as opening a firewall port. It is a complex integration project that touches your most sensitive operational data. Whether you choose to host the connector on-premise or in a private cloud, the real challenge lies in the data layer. If your NAT logs are unstructured or your subscriber data is siloed, the fastest connector in the world won't save you from missing the 8-hour deadline.


Treat this as a data mediation project, not just a compliance tick-box. Start your pre-study today, because refining terabytes of log data takes far longer than installing a certificate.


Ready to assess your readiness? 


Contact our team or download our Checklist to see where your architecture stands against the new EU requirements.



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