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."
Just another article stating FUD. Nothing to see here, move along. Might as well also get rid of online forums, USENET, and telephones.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
I see a new agency to observe / control these.
I've heard that terrorists also speak to people to recruit new members!
We should stop right now the use of language.
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.
Meta will eat itself
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.
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?
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.
"I have downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records, why would I care if somebody downloads ours?" Robin Pecknold
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.
I think that the person who commits suicide, killing many innocent people in the process is much *more* stupid than that.
May Peace Prevail On Earth
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.
Conversion Rate Optimisation French / English consultant
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 :)
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)
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. - Dr. Seus
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.
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.
"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.
So they're the ones to blame for Global Warming. Terrorists hate polar bears too.
I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
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?
Leben Sie jetzt die Fragen.