Encryption“Dark Internet” inhibits law enforcement’s ability to identify, track terrorists

Published 10 June 2015

For several months, Islamic State militants have been using instant messaging apps which encrypt or destroy conversations immediately. This has inhibit U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies from identifying and monitoring suspected terrorists, even when a court order is granted, because messaging companies and app developers say they are unable to unlock the coded conversations and/or do not have a record of the conversations. “We’re past going dark in certain instances,” said Michael B. Steinbach, the FBI’s top counterterrorism official. “We are dark.”

For several months, Islamic State militants have been using instant messaging apps which encrypt or destroy conversations immediately. This has inhibit U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies from identifying and monitoring suspected terrorists, even when a court order is granted, because messaging companies and app developers say they are unable to unlock the coded conversations and/or do not have a record of the conversations.

We’re past going dark in certain instances,” said Michael B. Steinbach, the FBI’s top counterterrorism official. “We are dark.”

FBI officials want Congress to expand their authority to monitor apps such as WhatsApp and Kik, as well as data-deleting apps such as Wickr and Surespot, used by hundreds of millions of people, including terrorists and their supporters, because they guarantee security and anonymity.

About 200,000 people worldwide are exposed to “terrorist messaging” daily from ISIS supporters via direct messaging, online videos, or social media posts. ISIS recruiters also monitor Twitter and Facebook to connect with individuals who share the group’s posts, often inviting them to private conversations over encrypted or data-deleting apps.

FBI officials fear that law enforcement agencies are missing important clues about potential plots as terror-linked conversations go from social media to private messaging apps. The FBI has arrested nearly forty people since last summer on the suspicion of seeking to support terrorist groups. A vast majority of those people communicated their intentions through social media. Last Tuesday, an FBI agent and a Boston police officer shot and killed a 26-year old former security guard in Roslindale, Massachusetts after he allegedly lunged at them with a knife. The FBI had been tracking his social media communications with ISIS for at least several days.

ISIS and its supporters are now increasingly communicating via secure and encrypted messaging platforms. “These tactics are a sea change for spreading terror, and they require from us a paradigm shift in our counter-terrorism, intelligence and our operations,” Representative Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said last Wednesday at a congressional hearing.

The Los Angeles Times reports that FBI officials have not disclosed details of cases in which private messaging apps have been used by terrorists, but they have appealed to tech and software companies to work with law enforcement to monitor suspected terrorist communications.