Since before 9/11, Al-Qaeda and other jihadi groups have been quietly investing in cyber jihad, which is now disseminated and promoted by a new, Internet-savvy generation. Jihadis have advanced from primitive password-protected websites to freely available social media platforms. Al-Qaeda, and now the Islamic State (ISIS), have infested YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Yahoo’s Flickr, and the Internet Archive, and adopt new social media – Ask.fm, Vimeo, Vidme, VK.com, and SoundCloud, to name a few – almost as quickly as they emerge. They also depend on apps available on Google Play and iTunes for Apple. Jihadis’ online presence now consumes U.S. and other Western governments’ counterterrorism efforts, and it should be of concern to the business community, which has remained largely silent on this issue.
American tech companies have been instrumental in helping to spread jihadi ideology. Anyone can follow, “like,” “friend,” tweet, and re-tweet content by ISIS as well as submit questions to it, view photos posted by it, and conduct dialogue with it. There is also an effort to recruit activists with computer and Internet skills to help hack government and bank websites, hijack drones and other aircraft, and carry out various cyber crimes, such as leaking personal details of military, government, and business leaders or stealing customer data. Just recently, it was announced that a Kosovoan hacker was arrested in Malaysia on a U.S. warrant alleging he hacked into the computer system of a U.S. company, stole personal information of 1,351 service members, and passed it on to several ISIS figures.
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