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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."
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'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
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?"
liqbase
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.
No sig today...
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
Osama Bin Laden has sent you some anthrax using the super poke application. Would you like to reply?
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.
Yeah, thanks to websites like Myspace, terrorist groups like "Fans of Panic at the Disco" have been able to organize and terrorize the rest of the web.
Clovis
^ Clovis, look! It's that guy you are!
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.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
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 :)
Terrorists have persistent habit of breathing in oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
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.
Terrorists have persistent habit of breathing in oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide.
Well we're trying to cure them of that habit. ;)
The enemies of Democracy are
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.