In March, I was able to speak at South by Southwest Interactive, the mecca of tech conferences, about how al-Qaeda and other global insurgent groups are using the internet to spread their messages, recruit followers, and advance terrorist plots. The topic of “Terror 2.0” was something I first stumbled upon during my reporting for “The Threat Matrix” and one that I really came to be fascinated by. Here’s the pitch from my SXSW talk:
“The web, it is often said, inherently benefits the insurgent. Thus it’s no surprise that it’s becoming the medium of choice for terrorists and violent extremist groups around the world. Tracing “terror 2.0″ from the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai—arguably the first networked terrorist attack—up through the Times Square bomber, who was radicalized after watching online videos from Muslim cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki and others, this presentation will examine how terrorists are using the same tools we’re developing for spreading information and social networking in the West for their own nefarious purposes—even sometimes live online to coordinate unfolding attacks. Learn how al Qaeda, the Iraq insurgency, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Taliban, and even Russian organized crime is running scams, coordinating attacks, recruiting followers, raising money, and living their lives online alongside regular web users. For instance, the Taliban’s website was, for a long period, hosted on a server in Houston, Texas, and al Qaeda’s primary webmaster—who helped pass around online bomb-making guides, radical videos, downloadable extremist sermons, and hostage videos—turned out to be a 22-year-old geek in West London.”
UPDATE: You can now listen to the whole talk on the SXSW website.
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