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Researcher Says Social Networks Link Terrorists
Posted by
samzenpus
on Thu Jan 08, 2009 07:57 AM
from the you-have-a-terrorist-request dept.
from the you-have-a-terrorist-request dept.
An anonymous reader writes "At the International Conference on Cyber Security 2009 in New York, Evan Kohlmann, a senior investigator and private consultant for Global Terror Alert, claimed that a new breed of terrorists are using online forums to recruit people who align themselves with the mission of Al Qaeda, creating global networks of would-be terrorists."
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Submission: Researcher: Social networks link terrorists by Anonymous Coward
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FUD (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:FUD (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You know, all these terrorist organizations would have a lot more trouble communicating if we just stopped teaching children how to communicate.
Of course, this might make them behave in a more feral-like fashion, but it's a small price to pay to help fight terrorism.
Re:FUD (Score:5, Insightful)
Also ink - people always forget about the ink. Used by terrorists for recruitment and plotting attacks. When will the madness end and ink be banned.
Parent
Re:FUD (Score:5, Funny)
And bananas, terrorists eat bananas too.
Parent
This Just In! (Score:5, Informative)
Terrorists have persistent habit of breathing in oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This Just In! (Score:4, Funny)
Terrorists have persistent habit of breathing in oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide.
Well we're trying to cure them of that habit. ;)
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
oh, you can count on the USENET getting the FUD cannon.
Where do you think the terrorists get their kiddie porn.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You could even get rid of photobucket or craigs list.
If I was a real deal terrorist I'd start putting messages in images. "For sale: " each with a different message, all embedded with text or encrypted text.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't think of any technology that can't be twisted and turned towards aiding evil.
OMG stop making penicillin as it could be given to a terrorist to make him healthy enough to be able to bomb his next target, where before he may have died from his illness.
Money! (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I've done a lot of sales in my life. But I can't even begin to understand how difficult it must be to convince some idiot to blow himself up with the notion of virgins in paradise etc..
On the other hand I can't think of a better thing to do with a radical Moslem than strapping bombs to them and blowing them up.
This Just In (Score:4, Informative)
Technology is show to be poltically-neutral. The same websites that link peaceful people can also link criminals, terrorists, military personnel, and the CIA to each other.
The same gun can be used to terrorize or defend.
The same hammer can drive nails or bash in skulls.o
We now return you to your regularly-scheduled /.-ing.
Parent
Quick! Stop all forms of communication! (Score:5, Insightful)
I've heard that terrorists also speak to people to recruit new members!
We should stop right now the use of language.
Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! (Score:5, Funny)
We don't need anything that drastic. We just need to ensure that people can't communicate with each other effectively. I suggest having everyone make up their own language.
Seen nablag orggash, neeble whorp flarq.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! (Score:5, Funny)
No need to make up one. We just need to find a language that the terrorists hate so much that they refuse to communicate in it. Obviously, their hatred of Americans isn't strong enough to make English that language. Who do they hate more than Americans? Jews! (And I say that as one.) Hebrew might be too obvious, so I propose that we all speak Yiddish from now on. Plus, Yiddish has the best curses [yiddishradioproject.org]. About Bin Laden: Ale tseyn zoln bay im aroysfaln, not eyner zol im blaybn oyf tsonveytung. And furthermore: Migulgl zol er vern in a henglayhter, by tog zol er hengen, un bay nakht zol er brenen.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I believe things would get very quiet in the Middle East if you chose Pig Latin instead of Yiddish.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Obedience to authority and submission are pretty much human traits, and I don't think you'll ever get rid of them. Check out the Milgram experiments.
Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Dra åt helvete, jag hatar dig.
(For those not in the know, the Danes once controlled most of Scandinavia. And they must never forget that they were once an imperialist power. They must therefore tread softly when talking to other people. Even though it was years and years ago. It still counts. Bloody imperialists. (I'm not making this up, there is still a guilt complex among some Danes about this.))
Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! (Score:4, Funny)
Jeg er dansker, din ubehÃvlede tumpe!
Allow me to translate this into a language us Americans can understand:
Derka derka, Muhammad jihad!
Parent
Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! (Score:5, Funny)
"Allahu akbork?"
Parent
"Network" (Score:2)
Technically, I've created a network if I plug a crossover cable between two machines.
Technically, there is "a global network of would-be terrorists" if a jihadist from Pakistan uses a social site to contact anyone else in the world.
Technically, paranoid people are really stretching the definitions of the word "network".
Oh come on... (Score:5, Insightful)
How many stories like this do we have to read? When will the internets finally be recognised as a medium rather than an entity?
As soon as government agencies begin to properly recognise this fact, they will be able to operate within the medium, making use of its strengths and weaknesses, instead of fearing it the whole damned time. Did it never occur that social networking sites offer an excellent means of infiltrating "would-be terrorist" networks? Anonymity works both ways.
Just my 0.02.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
When will the internets finally be recognised as a series of medium-sized tubes ?
Fixed that for ya.
Wouldn't you take the opposite approach? (Score:3, Interesting)
Wouldn't you take the opposite approach and encourage trust in your fake user ... and then use the logs to track the IP addresses of the other participants ... and then tap (legally) their phones ... and find the people who have real connections with real terrorist organizations and crack THEM?
This is the
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
When the public is scared, it's easy to justify spending on security, etc. Where does a lot of that money end up going? To consultants. And guess who wrote the TFA?
This is the single most insightful comment on this post. I really need to get in on consulting work.
The Late, Great Zarkman Was Not Impressed (Score:2, Interesting)
The Zarkman [typepad.com] was not impressed with the quality of recruits and supporters garnered through the interwebs. . .
Fearmongering to grab headline time (Score:2)
Furthermore (Score:2, Funny)
Other links (Score:4, Interesting)
The networks also link the exact same people to well adjusted, middle aged Caucasians.
Weirdly enough, this positive influence doesn't seem to be mentioned in the study.
Same ol' FUD (Score:2, Insightful)
Anyways, what's the fuss? Terrorist on Facebook? Police should cheer, it'll be a lot easier for them to infiltrate these groups and identify their members.
How convenient (Score:5, Insightful)
So the jist of this article is several semi-permanent chatrooms have been identified where proto-terrorists gather to recruit and discuss strategy, and they want to take these down??!!!
That's perverse. Why on earth would you want to take out honeypots that your foes are kind enough to set up for you?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I would think a law protecting websites from civil liability with such sites and encouraging them to permit them would do more for intelligence gathering than a dozen agents in the field could ever dream of doing.
The West apparently stopped doing intelligence work some time between 1991 and 2001. Your suggestion is therefore completely unworkable. Repost your idea in Mandarin, perhaps someone will actually pick it up :-)
Ooh the hilarities we sadly never will know about (Score:4, Insightful)
"It's for the *children*!".."It's to stop terror!" (Score:2)
Same song, different lyric. Will they never learn?
Facebook (Score:5, Funny)
Osama Bin Laden has sent you some anthrax using the super poke application. Would you like to reply?
Anyone notice a trend...? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Which is the entire point of warrants. Can someone explain to my why the government would ever possibly need to act without a warrant? If there's an imminent threat, they can even go ahead with a wiretap and get the warrant later, they just have to let a judge know why they did it. Is the government afraid our judges are terrorists now?
Panic! (Score:4, Funny)
I congratulate the author (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyone stupid enough to read this article and decide avoid the Internet because it is a hive of scum & villany is just one less stupid person on the net in the first place. So much the better.
minority report .. (Score:3, Interesting)
Yoani Sanchez and her blogging comrades are now the targets of the Castro regime's [motherjones.com] censors--and police.
Please guys, they are winning (Score:4, Insightful)
Terror: "One that instills intense fear".
How is this continual stream of "they could be EVERYWHERE" news not spreading the terror? Seriously ... every once in awhile they fly a plane into a building or blow up a bus, which is horrible!! But having our media and our politicians say, "forall x. x can be used by the terrorists (watch out|let's get rid of it)" is doing way more damage to our lives.
Preaching to the converted, I know, but that's why we comment on Slashdot after all :)
Re:Red herring (Score:5, Funny)
You are giving people too much credit.
we hear about it time and time again in all different aspects of life.
Sure, there might be some smart ones who try to slip under the radar, but most just don't have the technical ability to manage a secure network let alone use technical security methods.
do terrorist organisations have their own helpdesk?
"Hello Dell support, how can I help?"
"I can't get my warhead armed."
"Have you tried turning it off and back on again?"
Parent
Emphasis on that. (Score:2)
Once SOMEONE in that "network" performs any terrorist act, the logs would be collected and EVERYONE in that "network" would be discovered.
It wouldn't even take that. Just one of them being investigated for doing something stupid.
If anything, the government should be encouraging this.
Re:Prison System... (Score:5, Interesting)
Convicts register their religious affiliation when they're processed into prison. And about 99.5% of the huge U.S.A. prison population consists of inmates who identified themselves as members of religious denominations." -- Gene M. Kasmar.
"In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies." -- From 'Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Societal Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies' a study published in the (peer-reviewed) Journal of Society and Religion, 2008.
"When I was young I used to pray for a bike. Then I realized that God doesn't work that way, so I stole a bike and prayed for forgiveness." -- Dan Gadino.
So how about we instead teach those criminals _not_ to use god as an excuse or as a way to get forgiveness ? Maybe if they figured out they have only their current life they'll decide to make better use of it. One can dream.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
You are in prison - what are the advantages to going it alone? By declaring affiliation with a group, what have you lost?