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Cape Town – Cyber criminals and terrorists share similar internet abusive behaviour, a security company has found.
“Due to the obviously illegal nature of their goals, cyber criminals and terrorists share the need to remain untraceable and anonymous online,” Trend Micro said in its Dark Motives report.
“Both groups are known to abuse tools and services that have been developed to help those who have a legitimate reason to hide their identities (such as journalists, whistle-blowers, and activists). Some examples of these tools include anonymising programs such as TOR, and certain encryption tools found in the Deep Web,” the report added.
TOR or The Onion Router, is an anonymous communication tool and Trend Micro’s research revealed that terrorists compile guides on how operatives can remain anonymous online.
“One assumption we can make here is that the consequences of being caught are different for the two groups: Cyber criminals only need to worry about jail time, while terrorists would have to contend with counter-terrorism efforts, which may ultimately lead to lengthy prison sentences or death,” said Trend Micro.
READ: Growing number of South Africans associating with terrorists – minister
Minister of State Security David Mahlobo told Parliament recently that a growing number of South Africans are associating themselves with terrorist groups, without specifying which communities were specifically involved in recruiting and finding efforts.
Trend Micro data showed that criminals and terrorists shared similar strategies, using secure email and deep web servers to barter and communicate, but social media to boast about their exploits.
Gmail and Yahoo respectively accounted for 34% and 12% of communications with the groups, but secure email services from SIGAINT, Ruggedinbox, and Mail2Tor accounted for 54% of cyber criminal and terrorist communications.
The groups are also similar in the use of instant messaging to co-ordinate, rather than to spread malicious links.
“We studied 2 301 accounts that openly support terrorist groups and found that instant messaging service Telegram is the most favoured among terrorists, with 34% listing their contact information as a Telegram address. Wickr, Surespot, Signal, and Threema accounted for the rest, along with WhatsApp and other messaging apps,” said the report.
READ: How online sharing could wreck your relationship, career
Trend Micro found that the most significant difference between cyber crooks and terrorists was the latter’s desire to spread propaganda.
“While cyber criminals’ main goals are to commit cybercrime (the unlawful electronic theft of funds) and stay hidden while they do it, terrorists aim to have their content go viral, to be seen and consumed not only by their followers but also by a wider public audience,” said the report.
Terrorists use websites, social media, multimedia (videos and images) and storage media like SIM cards and flash drives to spread their message.
Trend Micro defines a terrorist organisation as one that a minimum of seven countries have identified as such.
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