According to the last Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) recently published by EUROPOL – the European Union’s law enforcement agency – there is an increasing convergence between cybercrime and terrorism. Indeed, “Terrorists are becoming increasingly proficient in hiding their traces and activities by using anonymising and encryption tools and services » such as Tor available on the cybercrime market. Another trend highlighted by EUROPOL is the increasing use social media platforms by terrorist groups “to engage in recruitment campaigns, propaganda, incitement of terror acts and for claiming responsibility for attack”. In order to address these challenges, the EU law enforcement agency recommends Member States to “increase their OSINT capacity in order to monitor the development of new technologies that have potential for abuse by terrorists and which have already been adopted, and to proactively monitor social media to detect early patterns of radicalisation”.
Read the full IOCTA 2016 report.
