The nexus between technology and terror requires urgent attention if any tangibles are to be drawn from the territorial victories over the Islamic State.
The horrific bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday last month have further cemented the belief that the Islamic State is a brand that allows and sponsors forces with converging ideologies and goals to piggyback and exploit regional vulnerabilities and opportunities. With the Islamic State having lost its territorial strongholds in Iraq and Syria, as acknowledged by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in his first video appearance in over five years following the serial bombings in Sri Lanka. The natural course for the thousands of trained militants is to either flock back to their native countries or find haven in friendly/failed states willing to give them shelter. Losing territorial ground also indicates that the Islamic State has to resort to other ways to manage their operations. One of the tools that has been used by them has been the internet, which also appears to be the tool used, to a great extent, for the attacks in Sri Lanka. This article argues that the nexus between technology and terror requires urgent attention if any tangibles are to be drawn from the territorial victories over the Islamic State.
The nexus between technology and terror requires urgent attention if any tangibles are to be drawn from the territorial victories over the Islamic State.
While the Sri Lankan authorities are yet to ascertain whether the bombers who carried out the Easter Sunday attacks were the fighters who returned to Sri Lanka from ISIS territories. However there is no tangible evidence to suggest that they did. Then again, the social media presence of Zahran Hashim, the mastermind of the serial bombings suggests that at least some or all of the attackers may have been influenced and/or gotten in touch with the terrorist group though social media. Furthermore, according to reports, Zahran Hashim used Facebook regularly to propagate killing of non-Muslims and used private chat groups to recruit young men willing to sacrifice their lives. It is also alleged that Zahran used social media to recruit two brothers belonging to a rich business family in Sri Lanka, involved in the spice business, who reportedly used money from their business to help finance the bombings.
The social media presence of Zahran Hashim, the mastermind of the serial bombings suggests that at least some or all of the attackers may have been influenced and/or gotten in touch with the terrorist group though social media.
Over time, internet has become an indispensable tool for the Islamic State – a tool they have used with much efficacy for all their operations ranging from spreading propaganda, recruitment, communication, planning, financing and execution. They have been able to survive and expand their presence across the world with the help of the internet, despite surveillance measures taken by governments and technology companies because of the wide array of options at their disposal. If we look at the recent bombings in Sri Lanka, it appears that the attackers first got influenced by the social media propaganda of Zahran Hashim and/or that of Islamic State, which then led to the use of social media to get in touch with them. While technology was not a direct tool to finance the attacks, but then again financers too, were allegedly recruited via Facebook by the mastermind of the attacks – Zahran Hashim. The scale of the attacks suggest that the National Thawheed Jamath (NTJ) alone could not have executed these attacks without external help, possibly from the Islamic State, as it has been acknowledged by Sri Lankan authorities and terrorism analysts across the world. The degree and nature of their involvement, however, is yet to be ascertained. Nevertheless, the nexus between technology and terror that the attacks have exposed is one that cannot be ignored, especially given the need for ISIS to resort to alternate means of management and their success on social media in the past.
Over time, internet has become an indispensable tool for the Islamic State – a tool they have used with much efficacy for all their operations ranging from spreading propaganda, recruitment, communication, planning, financing and execution.
Circumventing government surveillance and self-regulation by technology companies has turned out to be relatively easy for terrorist groups. It is worth understanding how terrorist groups manage to not only survive without a territorial stronghold, but also expand, with the help of technology, and how they can successfully bypass governmental surveillance. Terrorist groups use mass social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to accomplish as much interaction as possible in as little time as possible, given the efforts made by governments and technology companies to remove terroristic content from their platforms at the earliest opportunity. However, these measures have not been very successful because of the sheer volume of bot accounts that are created. New accounts are ready to be used as soon as old ones are taken off. To achieve mass interaction, terrorist groups generally upload using globally and regionally trending hashtags, making it possible for people to come across their posts even when they are not necessarily looking for terroristic content. These posts generally contain within them, a link to secure websites containing extensive propagandist material and potential ways and means to get in touch with the organisation.
To achieve mass interaction, terrorist groups generally upload using globally and regionally trending hashtags, making it possible for people to come across their posts even when they are not necessarily looking for terroristic content.
The individuals who decide to get in touch with the groups, usually do so over secured groups on encrypted personal messaging applications such as Telegram, Kik, Signal or WhatsApp. The user-controlled encryption offered by these applications enables terrorist organisations to circulate propaganda material and make plans in a secure environment. The international community has come down heavily on the encrypted messaging application Telegram, the application of choice for the Islamic State to plan, execute and communicate with foreign governments, and the one they used to claim responsibility for the bombings in Sri Lanka. Governments have demanded Telegram to provide a backdoor access to them, or have banned the application altogether, as in Russia. However, the high number of encrypted and protected applications available on the market signifies that terror groups can move from one application to the other in no time. Furthermore, the use of the Dark Web, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and The Amnesic Incognito Live Systems – TAILS (an operating system enabling anonymity as a default setting) allows these groups to operate seamlessly without any fear of coming under government scanner or of their location being tracked.
The international community has come down heavily on the encrypted messaging application Telegram, the application of choice for the Islamic State to plan, execute and communicate with foreign governments, and the one they used to claim responsibility for the bombings in Sri Lanka.
The attacks in Sri Lanka must be viewed as a wake-up call by the international community, which has been celebrating the territorial victory over the Islamic State. It is imperative for states to have an effective cyber policy when it comes to fencing with terrorism on the internet. Thus far, progress in this regard has been very modest. While governments and technology companies, together, have taken measures to counter terrorism on the internet, most policies have been reactionary and half-hearted. As a result, not only have they been unsuccessful, in many cases, they have proven counterproductive. In order to draw any tangibles from the territorial defeat of the Islamic State and preventing them from becoming a global insurgency, it is critical that states devise rounded countermeasures that go beyond simply removing terroristic content off the internet.
While removing terroristic content from the internet is critical in the fight against terrorism on the internet, the relationship between governments and technology companies also needs to be a cooperative one rather than a hierarchical one. Resources need to be invested in developing machine learning tools powered by AI, as is being done by the UK government, to filter and block such content even before it is posted. Such tools would, however, require the AI tool to understand context in addition to content. Until then, tech companies can make use of existing machine learning tools to filter posts based on content and have human analysts that work on approval of content before it is posted, when dealing with terroristic content. However, it is important that such approval mechanisms are without government intervention to prevent concerns regarding the breach of privacy. Furthermore, instead of demanding backdoor access to encryption systems used by messaging apps such as Telegram, and thereby compromising security for potentially unlimited number of users; states should devise stronger judicial approval mechanisms with regard to getting access to devices and accounts of suspected terrorists with the help of professional ethical hackers. Such measures can go a long way to ensure that the internet becomes an inhospitable space for terrorism to flourish and for terrorists to communicate.
The author is a Research Intern at ORF Delhi.
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