Terrorists and Technology Dilemma
Better be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident security. — Edmund Burke
The most eminent problem everybody is talking about (facing or will face) from NSA to UN is not just terrorists and nukes but rather terrorists with technology. After the 9/11 attacks, tech terrorists came into limelight and since then, Al-Qaeda and ISIS have successfully utilized the internet in a manner previous terror groups have not had the opportunity to. Due to their technical growth, these terrorist groups now control more enclaves, enjoy safe heavens worldwide, and are more popular.
Internet provides a virtual world where the criminals can take advantage of cyber space to conceal activities, and now because of this virtual world, the terrorists are also not circumscribed to be apprenticed in physical space only. This ultimately made their job easy, as before the internet, criminals and terrorists often conducted their operations under the cloak of darkness. Its all thanks to technology and internet that they can now operate 24 ×7 with great pace and with little concern of being detected. Every time a new tech tool or an application is developed for the use and benefit of people, there is always someone else (militants/criminals) wondering how that tool can be used for disaster or to kill.
According to the Global Risk Report 2018: Cyber security risks are also growing, both in their prevalence and in their disruptive potential. Another growing trend is the use of cyber-attacks to target critical infrastructure and strategic industrial sectors, raising fears that, in a worst-case scenario, attackers could trigger a breakdown in the systems that keep societies functioning. As per Director of National Intelligence, 2018- Terrorists and Criminals will continue to use the Internet to raise funds, recruit, organize, collect intelligence, inspire action by followers, spread propaganda, and coordinate operations. Recently Ajit Dovel (NSA, India) said, “The cyber space provides opportunities and challenges at the same time. While it provides global connectivity, it also provides connectivity to terrorists which is worrisome,”
Now the question arises that why do terrorists rely on internet nowadays?
Nowadays, it is almost inconceivable that terrorist organisations communicate with their perpetrators without using internet. However, the terrorists’ leaders are aware of the fact that their communication with their perpetrators using internet can be intercepted very easily and they can be caught. Therefore, they move towards secret communication techniques such as steganography in order to protect their information.
Steganography, which means “covert writing,” is a technique of concealing secret data that circumscribes heterogeneity of methods and cover medium for embedding in such a manner that the secret information is unnoticeable. Even though there exists hundreds of encryption algorithms, why terrorists are attracted to steganography? The reason is simple: unlike encryption algorithms, which attract third parties due to its cipher form, the goal of steganography is to hide the entire existence of the covert information.
There exists hundreds of free or shareware steganography tools/applications which are readily available on the internet for terrorists to use. The most eminent exploitation of steganography is concealing secret data into apparently harmless files, such as image, audio, or video. The NSA and other security agencies cannot ignore how technological advancements have bestowed terrorists with remarkable new possibilities.
How to detect suspected media?
Due to new technical advancements and availability of freeware tools, the jeopardy caused by steganography has been increasing vigorously. The government has had to adapt to the way internet is being used to ensure that they are doing as much as possible to be able to detect and prevent terrorists’ use of the internet for malicious reasons. A constant need to adjust and stay current with terror groups’ use of internet is needed to successfully track and deter communication methods of terror groups. Digital forensic examiners, law enforcement, cyber security agencies, and intelligence professionals should have the potential to discern the use of steganography for hiding secret information and to also extract that information. The technique to counter attack digital steganography is steganalysis, which is kindred to cryptanalysis; the goal of steganalysis is to detect whether the media is a stego or cover. As compared to cryptanalysis, steganalysis is much more difficult if the cover medium is not available.
There are agencies such as SARC (Steganography Analysis and Research Center) which are providing steganalysis services. In addition to the national security and StegAlyzer products, SARC is also active in different fields, such as law enforcement and homeland security, to counter tech terrorism and cyber-crime. SARC possess a national repository of fingerprints or hash values of different steganography applications and is continuously developing new techniques and tools to detect and extract hidden information.
Challenges and constraints
There exists different challenges and constraints for steganalysis depending upon the media and data available. However, two of the most common and main constraints are:
· Technology constraint- Anti-forensic hide traces of a user’s activity, making it more challenging and laborious for examiners.
· Time Dilemma- Steganalysis is a time consuming task and steganalyzer may think in two manners- if steganalysis is conducted and no result are found then that results in a lot of wasted time. But if steganalysis is not conducted, steganalyzer may miss crucial information.
Solution
Better and latest steganalysis techniques or keep an eye on them?
David Scharia from the UN Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate said, “Terrorists have used technology to their advantage, but now it’s time for the industry to band together to combat that”.
To fight those groups, tech firms must agree on the kind of terrorist content they won’t allow on their services, and “once companies agree that this kind of propaganda will not be part of their platform, then the next challenge comes in how to identify, and how to take it down.” Lately, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter announced an initiative with UN Security Council to intercept the cyber criminals and terrorists with today’s new tools such as, employing machine learning and deep learning to perceive and eliminate certain terrorist ventures. In addition to the UN counter-terrorism executive directorate (CTED), the companies will also help smaller firms work on the same processes to tackle extremist content online.
Conclusion –
As technology grows, so do cyber terrorists, and for us to be able to tackle this online terrorism, it is important to stay a step ahead. Till date, no one really knows how and what type of steganography has been used and how often? Still Digital Forensics examiners should prepare for the worst. National Security Agencies globally must come together to ward off terrorism and fight cyber-attacks. More events like Security & Counter Terror Expo 2018: bringing together the international community to enhance global security, must be organized. The regime must follow:
Gibbs’ Rule #35: Always watch the watchers. — First mentioned in Season 8, Episode 22 — “Baltimore”
