Spotting Terror Cells In Online Worlds

The US government has apparently begun a project to spot terrorists at work in virtual worlds. "All of the major terrorist treatises have been distributed through the internet so taking it to a virtual world with multi-player role games is really an easy step." said Andrew Cochran, founder and co-chairman of the Counterterrorism Foundation. Roderick Jones, a vice president of Concentric Solutions explains "Just to feel their way around them and work out what new intelligence collection methods might be required to deal with this threat, because you won't be able to use traditional law enforcement methods." Seems like some of those online foes are more of a threat than one might have anticipated? The BBC has more here.

Canadian Military Warns Soldiers Not To Post Info Online

The Canadian Defence Department is warning soldiers about the dangers of posting information to sites such as Facebook and of posting photos from the battlefront in Afghanistan. In a memo obtained by CBC News the military says "Al Qaeda operatives are monitoring Facebook and other social networking sites," and that "This may seem overdramatic … [but] the information can be used to target members for further exploitation. It also opens the door for your families and friends to become potential targets as well." Some question the motives and whether or not this is prudent advice or just the military's attempt at controlling the imagery of what is really happening on the ground. I think that if I were in the forces I'd be thinking long and hard about what I was publishing, we are all aware (or at least we are lead to believe) that there are cells operating within our borders, regardless of where we live in.