Jihadists increasingly wary of Internet, experts say
After having used the Internet profusely for propaganda and recruitment,
jihadist organisations have realised that investigators are gleaning
crucial information online and are increasingly concealing their web presence, experts say.
Apart from recent orders given
to fighters to limit their exposure, erase the footprint of their online
activity and avoid revealing too many place names or faces, the Islamic
State and Al-Nusra Front groups are increasingly using the "Dark Web"
-- the hidden part of the Internet protected by powerful encryption
softwares.
"Sometimes we get the geographical location of some
fighters thanks to Facebook," Philippe Chadrys, in charge of the fight
against terrorism at France's judicial police, said earlier this week.
"Some
even publish it on the public part of their account. That gives us
elements to build a case. Because of course we don't go to Syria, we
have no one on the ground, and we lack proof."
In November,
Flavien Moreau, a 28-year-old jihadist who travelled to Syria and then
returned to France, was jailed for seven years exclusively on the basis
of what he posted online.
And those who just months ago had
happily posted videos, photos of themselves holding Kalashnikovs or of
beheadings on Facebook have now realised that they were single-handedly
building a case against themselves, if they ever decided to come home.
"We
are starting to notice the beginnings of disaffection with Facebook --
they have understood that's how we get incriminating evidence," said
Chadrys.
"They are resorting more and more to Skype or WhatsApp, software that is much harder to intercept.
"We
realise that the people we are interested in are increasingly
specialised in computing. They master encryption software and methods to
better erase data."
'Cyber-surveillance' key
Chadrys also said that jihadists were increasingly using the "Dark Web."
"That
makes our probes much more complicated. The terrorists are adapting,
they understand that the telephone and Internet are handy, but
dangerous.
He pointed to Mehdi Nemmouche, sayinglast year's alleged Brussels Jewish museum killer had no mobile phone and no Facebook account.
Faced
with this problem, police are resorting to calling in cryptography and
computing experts, but there are never enough, which slows down
investigations.
Last autumn, the Islamic State group (IS) published guidelines for
its members, asking fighters not to tweet precise location names, to
blur faces or stop giving too many details about on-going operations.
"Security breaches have appeared, which the enemy has taken advantage of," read the text, written in Arabic.
"The
identity of some brothers has been compromised, as have some sites used
by mujahedeen. We know that this problem does not only involve photos,
but also PDF, Word and video files."
In a recent report, Helle
Dale of the US-based Heritage Foundation think-tank wrote that
cyber-surveillance was key to the fight against IS "as human
intelligence is hardly available on the ground, especially in Syria, and
the number of unmanned drones is limited."
But, she added, the
group "is changing is communications strategy. It is encrypting its
electronic communications, limiting its presence online and using
services that delete messages as soon as they are sent."
Source: Al Monitor
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