Computer Crime Research Center

old/Odysseus.jpg

Terrorists relocate to the Internet

Date: June 05, 2004
Source: Computer Crime Research Center
By: Vladimir Golubev

While American troops report of a seizure of a regular "Al Qaeda" camp in Afghanistan, experts raise an alarm: terrorists start relocation to the Internet.

The Internet is a very powerful tool in hands of terrorist organizations. It's not only because it gives them the opportunity to join and coordinate their actions. Through the Internet terrorism is able to popularize its ideas and vision worldwide. One may easily get access to such material; you simply need to click on a link.

Israeli analyst asserts that the Internet has long become the main communication line for Al-Qaeda. He says that with the tragic events of September 11 terrorism started the process of penetration to the Internet and it has become now a reliable basis for terrorist propaganda, recruiting and a lot of other things,
"I'd even say they are trying to build a virtual Islamic nation on the Web," he continues. "The Internet has become for Al-Qaeda a so-called 'open university'".

According to CNN, Al-Qaeda's website is actually located in Germany and is controlled from Saudi Arabia. Expert on terrorism, Paul Eadle says that it is difficult to cope with a terrorist website. Once an ISP finds an Al-Qaeda source hosted at their hosting service and shuts it down, terrorists relocate elsewhere right away.

"It is important for them to support their web source because it is more than just a PR tool", Mr. Eadle adds.

It is worth mentioning that Al-Qaeda doesn't use encrypting methods on the Internet as they attract attention of the governmental sniffers. It's not a problem for governmental forces to decipher any message.

Terrorists simply use usual Internet pagers without any protection to exchange messages without key words. For instance: "Meet you in a cafe at 3 o'clock". It is impossible to recognize a terrorist meeting from such message.

The Internet was designed to survive a nuclear war. But this advantage of the Internet created by the West, turned into a weak spot. Experts conclude that it is impossible to cope with terrorism consolidated in the Net.


Add comment  Email to a Friend

Discussion is closed - view comments archieve
2005-09-21 06:40:18 - Americans, if you have a virus onyour... Parker Orfield
2005-09-21 06:36:25 - All we have to do is send them Viruses... Parker Orfield
2005-09-02 08:39:22 - Very nice Pesho
2005-06-05 06:45:24 - there you have it.we invent internet and... lewis
Total 4 comments
Copyright © 2001-2013 Computer Crime Research Center
CCRC logo