The Hindu : New Delhi News : Terror flows out of hi-tech boom Law & order

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 14, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Terror flows out of hi-tech boom Law & order

The indefatigable pursuit of humankind for technological advancement has resulted in faster modes of communication all along. But the darker side of this development is that it has also become a tool for some to spread terror and cause destruction.

Misuse of the Internet by terrorist outfits is right now the biggest cause for concern for law enforcement agencies throughout the world. The medium that not so long ago was considered a boon – facilitating as it did faster transfer of information -- has now become the most potent means for networking and communication among terrorists.

Terrorist outfits have been using the Internet to their advantage in many ways. E-mail services and voice-chat are passé for them now that they have at their disposal advance facilities like Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) through which they can bypass electronic surveillance by intelligence agencies. VoIP helps transmit more than one telephone call through a single broadband-connected telephone line.

VoIP phones can be integrated with other services available on the Internet including video/audio conferencing and data-file exchange. “If not impossible, it is very difficult to keep track of calls made through VoIP,” says a police officer.

Another tactic terrorists employ is to route the calls through “cheap” servers located in countries that are not on the watch-list of international intelligence agencies.

Apart from VoIP, terrorists have been using a variety of encryption techniques – most of which are available on the Internet itself – to morph their messages to evade detection. They have at their disposal a range of advance encryption software several of which can embed encrypted messages in the voluminous encrypted data, making it more and more difficult for investigating agencies to decipher them. While advanced countries like the U.S. have the technological know-how and wherewithal to crack such messages, others are yet to acquire expertise.

Another technique employed by terrorists is steganography that is used to embed messages in pictures and audio files. Creating further problems for enforcement agencies, they send these files as spam (messages sent in bulk but not directed to any particular person). “The message reaches a wide number of people, among whom are the intended recipients,” says the police officer. This ensures that surveillance agencies remain oblivious about the source and destination besides the content of the message.

Though several countries have the software to intercept “malicious” messages, in the developing nations it is almost impossible for enforcement agencies to carry out real-time screening of embedded messages that are sent as spam. It would not only require technology to decrypt the messages but also a heavy and high-speed data-storage facility.

Another cause for concern is the easy availability of information (or misinformation) on the Internet on a wide variety of “dangerous” subjects. “The current situation is that law enforcement agencies have stopped bothering about the issue because they have no solution to it at present,” says another police officer.

One of the plausible solutions that will certainly require a concerted effort from all quarters is provision of a Global Positioning System identity for all. Though it would mean keeping a watch on the movement and activities of even innocent people and encroaching on their privacy, it would according to experts be in the interest of their own safety.

As technological advancement cannot be reversed, all those involved in the area of research and development will have to work harder to check its misuse.

Devesh K. Pandey

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