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

Apple chief executive Tim Cook in a 1 June speech at the annual awards dinner for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, defended his company’s decision to encrypt the content of Facetime and iMessage communications. He lashed out at government officials who have asked Apple and other tech firms to create a backdoor key to encrypted messages. “Let me be crystal clear,” Cook said. “Weakening encryption or taking it away harms good people that are using it for the right reasons. And ultimately, I believe it has a chilling effect on our 1st Amendment rights and undermines our country’s founding principles.”

At last Wednesday’s congressional hearing, Steinbach said that the FBI seeks a legal way to access stored text messages and active communications in suspected terrorism cases. “We’re talking about going before the court, whether the criminal court or the national security court, with evidence, a burden of proof, probable cause, suggesting a crime has been committed or, in our case, that there’s a terrorist,” he said.

“We’re not looking at going through a backdoor or being nefarious,” he said.

“We are imploring Congress to help us seek legal remedies toward that as well as asking the companies to provide technological solutions to help that,” Steinbach said.

Public demand for e-mail and text messaging services which guarantee security and anonymity has risen since Edward Snowden leaked details about the NSA’s bulk data collection program. Still, federal officials want tech companies to know the risk associated with their services. “It is important for those who are providing the services to understand what the threats are and to be responsible … in terms of taking action to prevent designated terrorist groups from using their services to try to get people to commit terrorist acts here,” John Carlin, head of national security for the Justice Department, said in a recent interview.

While ISIS seems to have successfully mastered how to use social media to recruit new followers, the medium has its weaknesses. Air Force analysts at Hurlburt Field, Florida recently helped destroy a command center in Syria after a militant revealed enough information online to disclose his position. “The (airmen are) combing through social media and they see some moron standing at this command,” Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, head of Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, said in a speech on 1 June, according to Air Force Times. “And in some social media, open forum, bragging about command and control capabilities for (ISIS). And these guys go, ‘Ah, we got an in.’”

“So they do some work. Long story short, about 22 hours later through that very building, three (‘smart’ bombs) take that entire building out. Through social media. It was a post on social media. Bombs on target in 22 hours,” he said. “It was incredible work, and incredible airmen doing this sort of thing.”

ISIS, however, has been aware of the vulnerabilities of social media. Last fall, the group’s leaders issued an order forbidding fighters to photograph attacks and locations without permission from the group’s general council. The Times notes that ISIS also distributed a guide to removing geo-location and metadata from cell phone images.