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Belgian Home Affairs Minister: Terrorists Communicate Via PlayStation 4 (qz.com)

Posted by timothy on from the wrong-moral-panic dept.

bricko writes with story at Quartz reporting the words of Belgium's home affairs minister Jan Jambon, who says that ISIL operators communicate using their PlayStation 4s; "which allows terrorists to communicate with each other and is difficult for the authorities to monitor. 'PlayStation 4 is even more difficult to keep track of than WhatsApp,' he said. The gaming console also was implicated in ISIL's plans back in June, when an Austrian teen was arrested for downloading bomb plans to his PS4." This seems a strange place to concentrate investigators' energies; terrrorists could be communicating in the chat session on the side of many social media games, too, or by any number of other means; Jambon would do well to read through some of the movie plotlines that Bruce Schneier has gathered.

6 of 202 comments (clear)

  1. Either this is false or they are idiots by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Either this information is false, or the Belgian minister is an idiot. If we can track them on a single platform, it would be dumb to let them know, because they will move somewhere else. It would also be dumb to tell them that it is hard for authorities to monitor if that was actually true. So I assume this is all false information disseminated as a deception.

    1. Re:Either this is false or they are idiots by beelsebob · · Score: 5, Interesting

      No, he is attempting to provide political impetus to be able to make laws banning the use of end to end encrypted chat sessions, so that he can spy on everyone.

    2. Re:Either this is false or they are idiots by geoskd · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Edward Snowden is a sainted genius for doing the EXACT SAME THING, only FAR, FAR more and worse.

      Snowden is praised because he revealed the mass invasion of privacy against individuals who are not terrorists and have no affiliation with terrorists.

      Mass surveillance is bad because sooner or later, the government becomes the terrorist, and the ultimate goal is to lay the groundwork in advance so that removing these tyrants is as bloodless and painless as possible. Mass surveillance, and the disarming of the populace are measures taken to make it easier for those in power to stay in power. We need to take any and all actions reasonable to ensure that those in power remain rightfully fearful of the governed masses. When they no longer fear the power of the people, the corruption begins. It doesn't take very long after that for the human rights abuses, and ultimately outright tyranny in its worst incarnations.

      --
      I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
  2. Game chat by phorm · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually, game-chat would probably be a good (for them) way to hide certain types of planning. I'm not saying it's true, but for a modern shooter or perhaps FPS, they could simply substitute "game" targets for real-life ones, and otherwise the conversation might sound much you would hear in some games.

    OK, so sneak your infiltrator into the enemy Science Centre. There will be about 3 guards in positions X, Y, and Z. Group B will take them out, then you delivery the package by 14:00. Meanwhile group C enter the mass relay by 13:50, and take out all present. Group A will attempt to take out enemy power infrastructure and cause confusion at 13:30.

    Maybe some of it would sound like weird BS, but would *you* suspect that some of the weird guys in CoD were actually plotting nefarious things in real life? Some of the shit that trolls said might be a good cover too, as most sane people either mute them or just ignore it. As a mid-level gamer I'm not sure I could tell the difference between a real-life nutball and the online nutball variety.

  3. Re:for the love of god by fustakrakich · · Score: 5, Funny

    You're far more likely to die by slipping in your bathtub.

    That's because your bathtub is designed by terrorists

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  4. Re:for the love of god by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You seem to have forgotten that the Internet spans the entire world. And that many /. readers are not from the USA.

    while I agree that the news coverage on the subject is often a bit excessive in some regards I strongly disagree with your apparent position that the 127 people who died in France yesterday and the hundreds of others who die every month elsewhere in the world don't matter because they are not American.

    and FYI I am an American, I just have a broader world view than you have demonstrated.