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Researcher Says Social Networks Link Terrorists

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."

35 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. FUD by Spazztastic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just another article stating FUD. Nothing to see here, move along. Might as well also get rid of online forums, USENET, and telephones.

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    Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
    1. Re:FUD by noundi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And paper, morse code, whistles, Microsoft Sam...

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      I am the lawn!
    2. Re:FUD by phagstrom · · 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.

    3. Re:FUD by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Don't forget e-mail! And cellphones! The 9/11 hijackers used e-mail and cellphones to communicate! I hear some cellphones can do both. Does that mean that the Blackberry is the epitome of all evil?

    4. Re:FUD by jellomizer · · Score: 2, 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.

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    5. Re:FUD by b4upoo · · Score: 2, 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.

  2. solution by majorme · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I see a new agency to observe / control these.

  3. Quick! Stop all forms of communication! by Thanshin · · 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.

    1. Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! by cephah · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Jeg er dansker, din ubehÃvlede tumpe!

    2. Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Okay, but what's the point then?

      Not being complete imbeciles, we presumably all realise that people use communications media to communicate. We presumably all realise that social networking sites, just like telephones, radio transmitters etc etc are communications media. We presumably all realise that terrorists, just like bakers, stamp collectors etc etc are people. So we can presumably all work out for ourselves that terrorists will use social networks to communicate. Is there anything more to be said?

      I bet drug traffickers use them too. And gun runners. And child molestors. Can we have a generic 'bad people communicate too!' article to get the whole lot covered in one go?

    3. Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      We should stop right now the use of language.

      No, actually every conversation made should be recorded, transcribed, indexed and kept forever in a huge database, run by the cheapest private contractor we can find.

    4. Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! by NevarMore · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I believe things would get very quiet in the Middle East if you chose Pig Latin instead of Yiddish.

    5. Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      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.)

      Don't sweat it; you also gave us Lego. It's all good now.

    6. Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! by ralph_the_wonder_lla · · Score: 2, Insightful

      BTW I am not a Muslim. I am an atheist, and I know that nearly all religions have been used to justify terrible crimes.

      Hmmm. Lets take a long hard look at the crimes against humanity commited by atheists, shall we?

      Ten million Ukrainians killed by Stalin in the farm collectivization. Six million Jews by Hitler and two to three million Cambodians by Pol Pot. This is a very short list from the 20th century.

      This history books on the library shelves don't do any good unless you read them.

      --

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    7. Re:Quick! Stop all forms of communication! by Rycross · · Score: 2, 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.

  4. Oh come on... by tygerstripes · · Score: 4, 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.

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    Meta will eat itself
    1. Re:Oh come on... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "How many stories like this do we have to read?"

      They will keep repeating this until it has become public opinion. Then probably start monitoring social networks or ban 'm outright.

    2. Re:Oh come on... by DrLang21 · · Score: 2, 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.

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      I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
  5. Same ol' FUD by var-tec · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There was a FUD about terrorist using PGP, there was FUD about terrorist using cell phones, there was even FUD about terrorist using Skype to communicate.

    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.

  6. How convenient by cruachan · · Score: 4, 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?

    1. Re:How convenient by bentcd · · Score: 2, 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 :-)

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      sigs are hazardous to your health
  7. Ooh the hilarities we sadly never will know about by TheP4st · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This made me visualize not X number of terrorists planning attacks and recruiting in these chatrooms, but X number of spooks gathering info on another in the belief that the other spooks are the real thing.

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    "I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
  8. Anyone notice a trend...? by Shawn888 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is just the government looking for a new way to view the people's email in any way they can. They will keep making new stories and attach the work "terrorist" to it, so that they can get a free pass to peek inside the area. First it was phones (obviously), and now they do warrantless wiretaps (and get away with it). Then it was laptops, now they can confiscate your laptop at the border for about as long as they want to. Now it's social sites... Anyone see a trend here? Now before I finish I will say that the government does need some of these options under certain circumstances, but not a free pass to view whatever they want, whenever they want.

    1. Re:Anyone notice a trend...? by secretcurse · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I will say that the government does need some of these options under certain circumstances, but not a free pass to view whatever they want, whenever they want.

      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?

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  9. Re:Red herring by SolitaryMan · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I think that the person who commits suicide, killing many innocent people in the process is much *more* stupid than that.

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    May Peace Prevail On Earth
  10. I congratulate the author by fruey · · Score: 3, 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.

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    Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
  11. Please guys, they are winning by mgiuca · · Score: 3, 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 :)

  12. it gets better by swanriversean · · Score: 2, Insightful

    this just in:
    literacy enables terrorist to communicate more effectively

    related news:
    troops in Afghanistan will begin rooting out insurgent teachers who are instructing the next generation of terrorists the techniques of reading and writing (arithmetic, aka math, had been banned long ago once it was discovered that 3rd grade Afghans were surpassing the proficiency of US high school grads)

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  13. Money! by ShatteredMind · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Obviously the number one method for recruiting, arming, and gathering terrorists is good old green backs! Money the number one tool for terrorism; guess we need to ban that shit too.

    1. Re:Money! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I thought religion was the number one method...

    2. Re:Money! by AmberBlackCat · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I still think it's money. Religion is more of an excuse to do it than anything else.

  14. Ah, the irony. by rift321 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Religious fanatics using technology created by western consumer whores to organize attacks against western consumer whores in the name of religious fanaticism. I guess in their culture, the ends _do_ justify the means. In any case, I'm sure if they use it enough, they'll become so distracted by the addicting nature of checking your wall, and leaving clever bumper stickers for friends that they'll forget all about their religious convictions.

  15. Re:Prison System... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "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."

    Everyone knows that convicts would never lie on an admission form.

  16. Re:This Just In! by DrLang21 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So they're the ones to blame for Global Warming. Terrorists hate polar bears too.

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    I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
  17. Re:Prison System... by denttford · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Additionally, an inmate declaring membership in a religious group sets the stage for affiliating with a "group" that might afford protection in prison. Also, I'm told that the halal food is better at Rikers. IIRC there are some benefits for prayer times. Just one example.

    You are in prison - what are the advantages to going it alone? By declaring affiliation with a group, what have you lost?

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