Cyberspace--A New Medium for Communication, Command, and Control by Extremists

• NCJ Number: 178797
• Journal: Studies in Conflict & Terrorism Volume: 22 Issue: 3 Dated: July-September 1999 Pages: 231-245
• Author(s): Michael Whine
• Date Published: September 1999
• Length: 15 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Technical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are extending the arena within which terrorists and extremists operate.

Abstract

Among the most active users of ICTs are Islamists and far right extremists whose increasingly networked formats are enhanced by such technologies. ICTs provide these groups with new benefits related to interconnectivity, anonymity, low cost, power enhancement, and new audiences. Islamists and Jihadists are turning to the Interet to recruit and to issue religious injunctions to the worldwide Muslim community. The growth of militias in the United States has also been aided by the Internet. While supremacists and neo-Nazis in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere increasingly see the Internet as the last communication medium free of interference and one they can use to best effect. Although these groups use the Internet to communicate, they are posed to use it for command and control as well. 46 notes