Jihadinets

A look at the Jihadis next weapon of choice: the internet.
FROM COUNTERRORISMBLOG.ORG
Jihadinets
By Roderick Jones
This piece was co-authored with Michael Schrage who is senior advisor to the MIT Security Studies program and a Sloan School adjunct lecturer.

Terrorists are early adopters of new technologies - especially if they're cheap and easy to acquire. Al-Qaeda's global embrace of the Internet was no surprise. The virtual world of jihadi chat rooms, online recruitment and networked proliferation of deadly terrorist techniques has entered the public consciousness. No serious security observer now doubts that radical Islamist groups are adept at exploiting online environments. Therefore, the most visible recent advances in the realm of online collaboration -virtual worlds and social networking sites - will likely be adapted for use by extremists. The benefits these platforms provide for military training and operational command & control sharing are clear. The inevitable adoption of these systems by extremists will likely mirror past online developments: quiet experimentation across a number of platforms and mainstream systems, followed by the creation of password-protected digital enclaves that incubate future destruction.
The real-world Afghanistan may be gone as a terrorist training safe-haven but creating virtual Afghanistans is literally and figuratively child's play. From the Provisional IRA to al-Qaeda terrorists have traditionally relied on pliant host governments to conduct their necessary face-to-face training. That may no longer be necessary. Geographically dispersed terrorist groups could easily come together to learn the complex technical tradecraft of terror, such as bomb making - but within a virtual environment. Training camps have also traditionally played a significant role in terrorist movements, by indoctrinating recruits into their new cause. This essential discourse will be replicated, virtually across voice-enabled worlds. Systems such as the virtual world Second Life are unlikely to be used in this way, as potential jihadis will seek to operate behind private protected systems. However, password protected environments do become compromised over time as the monitoring of jihadi forums by the SITE Institute clearly shows. Unfortunately, terror has a dangerously clever and elusive option. A practical and shockingly accessible pathway to this future exists today. The same criminal gangs that use 'malware' and ‘spybots’ that secretly ‘recruit’ tens of thousands of unsuspecting home PCs and laptops into digital ‘zombies’ will ultimately become subcontractors to terror. Untraceably cheap and disposable 'just-in-time' virtual worlds that fuse the benefits of virtual worlds like Second Life with the criminal effectiveness of zombie botnets are inevitable. They will be where tomorrow's bin Ladens educate, train and coordinate their aspiring killers.
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