By Melanie Schweiger
India will need to step up its cyber security efforts if it is to counter terrorist activities online.
India’s most widely known terrorist organization is the Indian Mujahideen (IM), an Islamic terrorist group. Because of the organization’s close relations with the Islamic terrorist groups Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), its earliest origins are unclear. However, the first attack that was linked to the IM was the Varanasi bombing in February 2005. That was followed by the Mumbai train bombings in 2006, serial bombings in Ahmedabad and Delhi in 2008, and the attack on the “German Bakery” in Pune in 2010.
Most of these attacks involved pressure cooker bombs, bicycle bombs, and car bombs, but rarely firearms. However, the organization does have a trademark: Before each attack, IM terrorists sent emails to the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) or government departments, in which they communicated the attack’s purpose. Then, shortly before the attacks, hackers penetrated Wi-Fi networks to cover their traces and make it more difficult for investigators to identify them.
For example, before the Delhi blasts in 2008, IM members spread messages about the forthcoming event by hacking into an open Wi-Fi in Mumbai, aiming to send the intelligence team to the wrong location. The IM has also been known to use cyberspace to gather knowledge, recruit new personnel, and disrupt national security by spreading terror and propaganda online. This has been in evidence recently. In August 2014, the IM was accused of helping the Islamic State with recruitment and propaganda. By offering financial incentives and using YouTube videos as a medium to promote jihadism, the IM is using the Internet to attract and persuade poor Indian Muslims to join the fighting in Iraq. By the time of the report, more than 100 young Indian men were reported missing, believed to have gone to the Middle East to join the Islamic State.
Read the full story at The Diplomat