ADVERTISEMENT

Anti-terror chiefs want social media help with 'lone wolves'

Paddy McGuinness, the British deputy national security adviser for intelligence, said many countries are still too focused on foreign-derived attacks.

While traditional intelligence methods are foiling large-scale plots coordinated from abroad, the officials from the United States, Britain, Germany and Canada said that isn't enough to uncover attacks by self-radicalized individuals like those this year in Britain that have killed dozens.

Paddy McGuinness, the British deputy national security adviser for intelligence, said many countries are still too focused on foreign-derived attacks planned or directed by the Islamic State group or Al-Qaeda.

After the four attacks in Britain this year, he said at a Washington intelligence forum, "We are dealing with conspiracies that really do not involve an overseas element."

ADVERTISEMENT

"We're dealing with a problem in our communities, with people who do not travel, and become radicalized and move to violence... These were British plots by British people."

Christian Rousseau, head of Canada's Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre, calls it a shift to "Terrorism 3.0" as the Islamic State group reels from battlefield defeats in Iraq and Syria.

"The ability of an organized threat directed from overseas, where people travel, money travels, things travel, we're relatively good at being able to catch that," he told the Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington.

"The generation of terrorism that is now most impactful in Canada is the inspired or enabled terrorism," he said. Those are people who self-radicalize or radicalize online, then decide to launch an attack.

"We're in a world that's even more difficult because not only can we not deter them... but there are no signs to help us deal with this."

ADVERTISEMENT

In Germany, too, attacks trend toward self-radicalized, "inspired lone wolves," according to Friedrich Grommes, head of the international terrorism division of the German Federal Intelligence Service.

But in Germany's case these have been from recent immigrants, not second-generation immigrants like in Canada, Britain and the United States.

More help from Facebook wanted

The officials said that shift requires new approaches to detecting threats, with a focus on sources like social media.

But tough privacy laws and the protections enjoyed by the largely American internet and social media giants are impeding authorities in their ability to ferret out lone wolf threats, they said.

ADVERTISEMENT

McGuinness said he wants to see more pro-active support from Facebook, Google and other online giants with the ability to conduct large-scale automated scanning of users for possible threats.

He also called on the United States to pass laws to lift a ban on US internet companies responding to terror-related search warrants from foreign law authorities.

More than 95 percent of crime and terror cases involve people using an American technology application, he said.

Challenge of encryption

Potential attackers and their Islamic State coaches usually move to the encrypted "dark web" to talk, Rousseau said.

ADVERTISEMENT

"We can see the invitation, but we can't see the conversation afterwards," he said. "Encryption is stopping us from seeing the whole picture."

Even in Germany, where privacy protections are especially strong, there is increasing understanding of the need for more access by counter-terror investigators, Grommes said.

"ISIL is vanishing from the soil and going cyber," he said, referring to the Islamic State group.

"There is a growing understanding that we have to adjust our legislation to the European level... to assert the balance between protecting privacy and discovering illegal things like international terrorism."

Nick Rasmussen, director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, said American authorities are having more success by pumping large amounts of evidence of potential jihadist activity to the social media companies themselves, to press them to act unilaterally.

ADVERTISEMENT

"We are going to make sure we burden them with knowledge about how their tools, their technologies, their platforms are being used," he said.

JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!

Unblock notifications in browser settings.
ADVERTISEMENT

Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:

Email: eyewitness@pulse.ng

Recommended articles

Peter Obi breaking fast with Muslims in Abuja mosque gets Nigerians talking

Peter Obi breaking fast with Muslims in Abuja mosque gets Nigerians talking

Video of weird school competition shows young students licking one another's feet

Video of weird school competition shows young students licking one another's feet

UniCal records highest number of first class graduates in 49 years

UniCal records highest number of first class graduates in 49 years

Army announces names of 17 soldiers killed in shocking Delta attack

Army announces names of 17 soldiers killed in shocking Delta attack

Ooni wants Ile-Ife, Modakeke indigenes to live together peacefully

Ooni wants Ile-Ife, Modakeke indigenes to live together peacefully

'Politics is not about being negative every time' — Peter Obi

'Politics is not about being negative every time' — Peter Obi

Army thinks Okuama community planned shocking murder of 16 soldiers in Delta

Army thinks Okuama community planned shocking murder of 16 soldiers in Delta

27,600 Benue women to receive grants, loans for business growth, self reliant

27,600 Benue women to receive grants, loans for business growth, self reliant

₦184 million per street light project and other shocking figures in 2024 budget

₦184 million per street light project and other shocking figures in 2024 budget

Pulse Sports

Super Eagles Bright Osayi-Samuel punches pitch invader as violence erupts following Trabzonspor vs Fenerbahce

Super Eagles Bright Osayi-Samuel punches pitch invader as violence erupts following Trabzonspor vs Fenerbahce

Naija Stars Abroad: Moffi, Chukwueze battle Oshoala, Echegini for POTW

Naija Stars Abroad: Moffi, Chukwueze battle Oshoala, Echegini for POTW

Report: Super Eagles get new coach for Ghana and Mali clash

Report: Super Eagles get new coach for Ghana and Mali clash

Osimhen misses out on N17b payday after Napoli's UCL loss to Barcelona

Osimhen misses out on N17b payday after Napoli's UCL loss to Barcelona

‘Thank you’ - Osimhen’s girlfriend Stefanie Ladewig grateful for being the mother of his child

‘Thank you’ - Osimhen’s girlfriend Stefanie Ladewig grateful for being the mother of his child

4 reasons why Victor Osimhen should choose Arsenal over Chelsea, Manchester United and PSG

4 reasons why Victor Osimhen should choose Arsenal over Chelsea, Manchester United and PSG

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT