Technology is one of the strategic factors driving the increasing use of the Internet by terrorist organizations and their supporters for a wide range of purposes, including recruitment, financing, propaganda, training, incitement to commit acts of terrorism, and the gathering and dissemination of information for terrorist purposes. While the many benefits of the Internet are self-evident, it may also be used to facilitate communication within terrorist organizations and to transmit information on, as well as material support for, planned acts of terrorism, all of which require specific technical knowledge for the effective investigation of these offenses.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has published a 150-page document on the topic: Use of the Internet for terrorist purposes.



It's good to see that this publication does not wonder off to discuss cybercrime, hactivism, or piracy but indeed focuses on the real terrorist and extremist groups and their activities online.

However, a little bit disappointingly the document does not go deeper into the potential of actual online attacks launched by such groups. To quote: "While a considerable amount of attention has focused in recent years on the threat of cyberattacks by terrorists, that topic is beyond the scope of the present publication and, as such, will not be a subject of analysis."

We did some of our own work in this area, which was published in the RSA Conference earlier this year. A transcript is available here.