Terrorism and Bluetooth
Steve C. Gold · Network Security · 2011
The recent confirmation of the veteran second-in-command of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as the new leader of the infamous terrorist group – following the US-led ‘removal’ of Osama bin Laden in his Pakistan headquarters in early May – will not have gone down well with the US administration. The reason is that al-Zawahiri is even more hostile towards the West than bin Laden, as has recently been confirmed by his press statements committing al-Qaeda to a holy war – a Jihad – against the US and Israel. To pursue this campaign, the organisation needs to spread its message. And while the Western media likes to portray al-Qaeda as a low-tech, unstructured organisation, the reality is that the global group makes significant use of digital technology to promulgate its subversive message and recruit new members. To pursue its campaign of terror, jihadist organisation al-Qaeda needs to spread its message. And while the Western media likes to portray al-Qaeda as a low-tech, unstructured organisation, the reality is that the global group makes significant use of digital technology to promulgate its subversive message and recruit new members. Al-Qaeda has a digital research and development arm known as the Fariq Jawwal Al-Ansar (FJA) which, despite the ubiquitous nature of the Internet, has eschewed the web and email as its main means of communication in favour of Bluetooth. Al-Qaeda regards the technology as a perfect pocket-to-pocket broadcast mechanism that is almost undetectable by Western intelligence agencies. But, as Steve Gold explains, these agencies are finding ways to fight back.