According to intelligence firm Recorded Future in a recent report, the Snowden leaks moved terror operatives from the infamous group to Android and changes in encryption explaining “an increased pace of innovation, specifically new competing jihadist platforms and three major new encryption tools from three different organizations – GIMF, Al-Fajr Technical Committee, and ISIS – within a three to five-month time frame of the leaks.”
Al-Qaeda’s preference and the big three
Al-Fajr and GIMF have responded to the now (mostly?) known scope of American spying with apps advertised as the “latest technological advancements” in terrorism.
Altogether, these apps are pushing jihadists to Android encouraging bastard with bombs to “take your precautions, especially in the midst of the rapidly developing news about the cooperation of global companies with the international intelligence agencies, in the detection of data exchanged over smartphones.”
As a corporation, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) certainly doesn’t care who buys their iconic iPhone, but there must certainly be a few Cupertinion(?) smiles at the Apple headquarters given the understanding that a global terror network doesn’t love your technology.
But as well funded as Al-Qaeda is given the love and need present in crude oil, the report suggests that the primary reason for Android preferences lies in the economics and “the large availability and affordability of Android phones, especially in underdeveloped countries”
Non-violent terror?
Terror isn’t restricted to death and destruction. Often its just a matter of being a nuisance and that doesn’t bode terrifically well for Android users. According to the report, In addition to Android users being singled out for targeted malware attacks, the insecure nature of the platform provides Al-Qaeda with a vast network of devices to exploit for use in either distributed Denial of Service attacks or as a supercomputing cluster.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has left so many vectors open to malware attacks that hacking rather than physical harm may find its way more to the terrorist portfolio.
