Security experts: Don’t blame Internet for JihadJane and other recent terror scares
By Michael Booth, The Denver Post
Published: Saturday, March 13, 2010 11:15 PM ESTIt’s not the Internet. It’s the unstable surfer at the keyboard that constitutes the threat.
Internet terrorism and crime experts hedged their outrage when reacting to the arrest of Leadville’s Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, who was released Saturday without charges. Yes, they said, the Internet provides ample opportunity for disgruntled, lonely or violent people to meet up for criminal ends.
But social media, from chat rooms to Facebook, have become so widespread they are no more or less dangerous than society as a whole, these Internet observers said. And the technology cuts both ways: If alleged plotters like Paulin-Ramirez and “Jihad Jane” are using the Internet to plan crimes, rest assured law enforcement and watchdog groups successfully employ the same tools to foil them.
“Anyone who is trying to use the Internet for crime is falsely under the illusion that they are anonymous and won’t get busted,” said Steve Jones, author of “Virtual Culture” and a professor of communication and technology at the University of Illinois-Chicago. “Consider it an Internet-based `neighborhood watch.’ I’m not more concerned about the Internet than I am about the rest of the world.”
Internet connections can make for notorious nicknames and chilling chat-room transcripts, but the method of communication may not have that much impact on terrorism, said Jeremy Lipschultz, an expert in communications law and culture at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
The rest HERE
Ummm yeah, Steve, you seem to be misunderstanding the problems faced here. Sure, there are people like me and others out there cruising the boards, but, the “authorities” are kinda behind the curve on this stuff.
Believe me Steve, I know. I have had dealings with the authorities.
So, yes, if you are on the internet and looking to do bad things AND you don’t know how to be stealthy, sure, eventually, you will be caught. However, if you are careful and you know what you are doing, then it may take some time if at all to be caught.
Case in point, look at our whole APT and cyber security debacle ongoing in the US. The CyberShockwave CNN mess is just the tip of the digital iceberg when talking about how inept our government and its minions are in dealing with the problems in cyberspace.
Better yet, lets look at the 559 million dollar haul recently cited by the FBI taken by cyber criminals. Any clues? Suspects? Not like they can round up the usual crew huh? It’s just not that easy with our current infrastructure to capture traffic and catch those who were committing the crime. Nor are the cops, even the Feds up to the task of trying to capture these offenders.
Here’s a quote for you from a recent exchange I had with the FBI:
“I don’t know anything about this stuff.. I do drug cases”
This from a field agent tasked with looking into a cyber oriented incident. What I am saying here is there is a big gap and the criminals and jihadi’s are using that to the most.
So Steve, you obviously don’t have a clue about cyber security issues. The real ones to worry about surely aren’t the guys and gals just using chat groups to talk to Jihadists, these “Jihobbyists” but let me remind you, it was a group of guys who were NOT cops or feds, that caught on to Jane and then reported her. Of course all of this AFTER she had activated and tried to whack a cartoonist. An act in which she failed mind you.
Oh, and Steve, did you know she was doing all this on YouTube? I mean really, just how friggin sooper sekret is that huh?
Duh.
Were Jane and others out there tech savvy or trained to be, they could be much more dangerous. In fact, the moniker “jihobbyist” has taken a turn in meaning. You see, the feds thought of Jane and others as “mostly harmless” but, as you can see they were wrong.
No, worry about the Jihadi’s who are technically savvy and trained in computer skills who know how to use a TOR router, encryption, email dead drops, etc. Those are the ones to worry about because even if one of us non cops are watching, we may not catch on. Never mind the cops/feds who are playing catch up.
CoB
Krypt3ia 
With this comment “But social media, from chat rooms to Facebook, have become so widespread they are no more or less dangerous than society as a whole, these Internet observers said” the so-called expert fails to recognize — or at least to admit — that is indeed the internet and the social media which has permitted access of these “unstable” people to those who would manipulate them. It would be awfully difficult for an Army Sergeant in Texas (Nidal Hasan) or a would-be bomber from Nigeria (Abdulmtallab) to keep contact with a radical cleric in Yemin (al-Awlaki) without the internet. Until the “experts” admit that there is a problem, they won’t be able to figure out how to answer it. The thing is, it’s a BIG problem and they know it. They, up to this point, appear to be sticking their collective heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich. Unfortunately, this won’t help us fight the battle.
StarCMC
2010/03/15 at 14:11
Clueless is right! The internet MAKES these sorts of hookups possible. In the old days, folks had to make CD’s & DVD’s and mail them to known contacts who would then try and get the word out. Before that, it was newsletters mailed around with pix and slides attached. It took LOTS of time to set up networks of cells and pass information around.
Nowadays? The intertubes let everyone get on the big stage and broadcast their info. It’s fast-tracking the cancer of terrorism and enabling every home-grown jihadi nutjob to join in.
AW1 Tim
2010/03/15 at 15:25