ICT Cyber-Desk Review: Report #5

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This report covers two main subjets: cyber-terrorism (offensive, defensive, and the media, and the main topics of jihadist discourse); and cyber-crime, whenever and wherever it is linked to jihad (funding, methods of attack). The following are among the issues covered in this report:

• A visitor to the Hanein jihadist Web forum suggested that forum users study the “art of defense against [computer] breaches and hackers”, and he published a list of study topics for those who were interested, including: security mechanism breaches, various programming languages, the establishment of an internet and monitoring forum, and damage to servers.
• The Palestinian Gaza Hacker Team Web forum published a pocket guide of sorts on how to protect computers, and email and Facebook accounts, and opened a new department for advanced virtual courses on hacking into Web sites using the SQL injection technique, an effective method of attack using Defacement.
• The Global Islamic Media Front posted on various jihadist Web forums, a mobile encryption program for sending text messages and encrypted files using cellular telephones.
• A visitor to the ‘Ushaq Al-Hur Al-Islamiya jihadist Web forum suggested that his fellow visitors download an application that transmits current news about operations carried out by Ahrar Al-Sh’am Al-Islamiya, a Salafi-jihadist group operating in Syria.
• The increased use of digital currency, with an emphasis on bitcoins, and the inclusion of many trading sites on the list of businesses that accept virtual currency payments, have aroused the interest of several countries regarding the establishment of policies and the regulation of digital currency.
• Officials continue to enforce the law even on the darknet. In a combined operation, authorities in the United States successfully located and arrested the founder of the illicit trading site, Silk Road, which had served as a popular trading site with over 120,000 business transactions worth approximately 9.5 million bitcoins.