I heard this on the news tonight, the social network tool that you can send text messages to cell phones or friends online has been deemed a terrorist tool by the US military.
From Vnunut:
A report by US military intelligence has claimed that the messaging application Twitter could be used by terrorists as an operational tool.It's called technology assholes, it's better than the mass beatings to American's that the stormtroopers at both the RNC and DNC dished out. Wheres the ACLU. This is quickly becoming a fascist police state.
The report into the increasing security implications of mobile technology envisaged terrorists using Twitter messages, or Tweets, to communicate and share images and locations of future terrorist attacks.
"Twitter is already used by some members to post and/or support extremist ideologies and perspectives," the report said.
"For example, there are multiple pro and anti Hezbollah Tweets. In addition, extremist and terrorist use of Twitter could evolve over time to reflect tactics that are already evolving in use by 'hacktivists' and activist for surveillance. This could theoretically be combined with targeting."
It notes that Twitter was used extensively by protestors at the recent Republican National Convention to identify the location of police and security guards in an effort to get around them.
eFluxMedia adds:
The report also focuses on newer applications for mobile phones such as digital maps, GPS locators and many more. The army report analyzes discussions on Al-Qaeda-affiliated online forums and the fact that terrorists and followers are discussing about the benefits of modern-day technology and how it can be used to coordinate a terrorist attack.
One of the online conversations was reportedly about the benefits of "using a mobile phone camera to monitor the enemy and its mechanisms," while another was about how one can use a Nokia 6210 Navigator for "marksmanship, border crossings, and in concealment of supplies" through the cell phone’s GPS functions.
Another similar, online chat focused on how terrorists could use voice-modification software in order to conceal their identity when making phone calls. Using the above-mentioned features as well as many other and adding Twitter use to that may have a bigger impact.
"Twitter was recently used as a countersurveillance, command and control, and movement tool by activists at the Republican National Convention," the Army report notes.
"The activists would Tweet each other and their Twitter pages to add information on what was happening with Law Enforcement near real time."
2 comments:
Yeah I saw this article floating around last week. What the military
analysts see is that it's a highly nimble, decentralized broadcast
method. And they're scared b/c they don't know how to react to it.
Let's not forget that the people that flew planes into buildings on
9-11used unencrypted HOTMAIL to organize. They don't need twitter.
Also here are some of my favorite examples of people on Twitter that
are doing good (mainly disaster response)
The LA County Fire Department
The Amber Alert for Missing Children
The Red Cross
And not for nothing, they're on it to, although it doesn't look official:
The US Army
Even the
Wall Street Journal is taking notice.
Thanks Nerdette, especially for the links :)
Post a Comment