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Counter-terrorism expert Anthony Bergin warned yesterday in the Australian that terrorist networks might be using websites such as Facebook to attract recruits
Counter-terrorism expert Anthony Bergin warned yesterday in the Australian Newspaper that terrorist networks might be using websites such as Facebook to attract recruits, “in the same way a pedophile might look at those sites to potentially groom would-be victims”.
Whilst most readers might consider Bergin’s claims a little outlandish, just this weekend Counter Terrorism agents in Australia launched an investigation into the website after an Jewish woman and her family received a death threat from an alleged member of terrorist group, Hezbollah.
The woman is said to have received the death threat after turning down a friend request on her facebook site. Facebook have since banned the offending user from the site. The woman – who lives in Melbourne and is a member of an Israeli-based Facebook group informed police that the alleged Lebanon-based Hezbollah operative promised to kill her and her family.
According to police documents, the man wrote: “I am Hezbollah and I am going to kill you and all of your family – promise you.”
Speaking with The Australian, Melbourne University’s information technology senior lecturer Dr Shanton Chang said Facebook members leave themselves exposed to potentially dangerous situations. “The issue with having friends on Facebook, whether you know them or not, is once they’re your friend, they can access and have a look at anything about you listed on there,” Dr Chang said.
“And a lot of these people … they actually haven’t met in real life.
“And so it becomes easier, whether you’re a terrorist group, a marketing group, whether you’re spying on people, to actually look through people’s profile because there’s just a lack of understanding of who may be looking at your profile.”
Meanwhile the investigation into the terrorist threat continues…
Reported by Cec Busby
Source: The Australian IT news
