No Limits - Internet and Terrorism by Rederick Jones

The thoughtful private Intelligence company Stratfor just released a piece suggesting what it thinks are the limits to jihadi terrorists being able to conduct their terrorist planning and training online: The Role and Limitations of the ‘Dark Web’ In jihadist Training. Stratfor acknowledges that the Internet has been an enabler for terrorism but it doubts that the required tradecraft of terrorist operations can be taught online. Where Stratfor makes an error in this article is in not taking account of the enhanced capabilities of 3-D virtual worlds to assist the next generation of jihadi terrorists. The educational abilities of virtual worlds have been well-documented and as Stratfor points out bomb-making is best learnt from an expert. With the abilities available within virtual worlds there is no reason why this knowledge cannot be passed from teacher to pupil within a persistent 3-D environment. The real-time communication systems incorporating VoIP and the ability to produce sophisticated, ‘working’ 3-D models makes training in the engineering of terrorist technique a current reality.

But Stratfor, on this occasion, also makes the wider mistake of looking at the Internet as it is today, when the Internet always exists in the future. Therefore, while Stratfor rightly points to the limitations of Google Earth as a terrorist reconnaissance tool it fails to account for the Internet of tomorrow where target locations can be re-created in virtual worlds and attacks can be planned and practiced. It isn’t just virtual worlds but other applications that are making use of the explosion of data available to the ordinary user in order to create sophisticated digital tools, which will in time supplant Google Earth as the terrorist tool of choice. New software from Microsoft’s research lab entitled, Photosynth meshes with online photo sharing sites to deliver highly intricate 3-D models of real-world buildings and environments. Terrorists are understandably interested in any application that enhances their reconnaissance capability without exposing them to risk and photosynth fits that category. Conducting pre-attack surveillance is often when terrorist cells are at their most vulnerable - digital tools can reduce these vulnerabilities.

Technology companies are developing enhanced representations of the real world almost daily and these can clearly be corrupted for extremist use. Jihadi digital natives will increase the sophistication of their platforms to further enhance their potency - the limitations Stratfor correctly identifies will rapidly fall away.