Essay On Automatic Detection Of Cyber-Recruitment By Violent Extremists

Recruitment can be defined as all those those practices and activities carried out by the organisation with the primary purpose of identifying and attracting potential employees (Parry and Wilson, 2009). The world of recruitment is rapidly changing. The impact of the technology on recruitment is huge.

The way terrorist groups has been communicating and recruiting new has been changing, due to the emerging use

Therefore, an analysis of the terror organizations use of social media platforms to recruit future members will enhance the Intelligence Community (IC) in formulating effective methods to curb the recruitment of American nationals into terror cells.

This paper explores some of the techniques and tools that are used by terrorist leaders to try to influence and change the mindsets of people. Political and religious motived techniques that are used by terrorist leaders are discussed in the paper. The paper also discuses how terrorist leaders have used the internet to gain support, influence, and recruit new members,

In addressing the behavioral and psychological factors, I will identify what vulnerable people are and how they are influenced into recruitment of terrorist organizations. The comparisons provided will be associated to radical Islam and referenced with Mubin Shaikh own experience, as he was radicalized, then recruited for, and then de-radicalized from Radical Islam throughout. On completion of the reasons of how and why individuals join terrorist organizations, I will provide examples of programs of disengagement that are used for de-radicalizing imprisoned or individuals wanting to leave terrorist organizations. Nevertheless, the discussion will then turn to possible deterrents or methods to counter terrorist recruitment efforts.

To first understand what the complexity of the psychology of terrorist group recruitment is, the complication of 'what is terrorism' must first be understood for a full understanding of the phenomenon. There are many different definitions of terrorism and for the importance of simplicity the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) terrorism definition will be analyzed. According to the FBI, terrorism is defined by 18 U.S.C. And categorized as domestic and international terrorism. Domestic terrorism is defined as, “activities with the following three characteristics: (1) Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law; (2) Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination. or kidnapping; and (3) Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.” (FBI, 2014). Whereas, International terrorism is defined as, “activities with the following three characteristics: (1) Involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law; (2) Appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by

This is another form of terrorist group recruitment and it is usually broader and resembles propaganda. In this recruitment method, mass media is utilized, such as televised advertisements for groups that are within reach of the government and legislation (Reich, 1998). It may also include media channels and websites whose domain names and passwords are in the public domain. The terrorist groups that use this strategy usually target regional demographic or population strata including young teenagers who usually gather at a particular place or members of a unique religious congregation (Reich, 1998). This method of recruitment is usually indirect since physical communication may not be sustainable or

the similitudes are in their internet use, for information gathering, resembling the uses made of the medium by traditional political organizations, for example, raising funds and disseminating propaganda. And also to hide instructions, manuals, and directions in coded messages or encrypted files. Today, almost all active terrorist organizations maintain websites, and many maintain more than one. Many terrorist organizations are held together through their worldwide network of communities, both cybernetic and physical. The internet has been one significant enabler, which permits anonymous communication, aids recruitment, encourages the sharing of

Cyber terrorists exist today. The Osama bin Laden Crew (OLB Crew) is a group of self-proclaimed cyber jihadists. This group is reported to have been founded in 2000 by Abdullah Quraischi, an al Qaeda member living in Europe. The group’s activities have consisted of the creation of dozens of Web sites and forums that provide information on gun making, explosives manuals, as well as large-scale recruitment promotions and propaganda (AntiTerrorism Coalition, 2005). Remember, the overarching concept about cyber terrorism emerges where terrorism meets cyberspace. As previously stated, this takes the form of facilitating the underlying communications and control infrastructure of terrorist organizations, and also includes the dissemination of a group’s activities, as well as the facilitation of knowledge exchange. But this is only the beginning in understanding what a cyber terrorist does (i.e., reported and unreported), and may yet still do.

ISIS’s use of digital media has helped them become a powerful terrorist organization and a global threat. ISIS is able to recruit a variety of people online by using “just about every tool in the platform box- from Twitter to Youtube to Instagram- to great effect, attracting fighters and funding” (Morell). ISIS utilizes the internet by using several different social media platforms to attract new recruits online. On these social media platforms, ISIS generates sophisticated propaganda due to their effective use of 21st century technology. This appeals to potential followers because ISIS uses fancy, expensive technology to glamorize the terrorist organization. ISIS has a “multilingual propaganda arm known as al-Hayat, which uses GoPros and cameras mounted on drones to make videos that appeal to its followers” (Morell). ISIS now has a dominant presence on social media sites, and these sites are accessible to people across the globe. In a iCONN article called “ISIS on the Recruitment Trail”, the author explains ISIS’ vast presence on Twitter, one of the world’s most popular social media sites. The article states, “About one out of five (21.4% to be precise)...that is how many tweets with the acronym ‘ISIS’ in them were in support of the Islamic state of Iraq and Syria...in the fall of 2014”(Moore). This

How does ISIS continue to spread: By recruiting people through social media and brainwashing younger generations.

ISIS has cornered the market on creating an endless stream of videos and pictures of violence to convey their perverted messages. ISIS romances people with their social media campaign so that today legions of people from all around the world, most disturbingly America, join the group. Several hundred of ISIS fighters are Americans. Many external motivators such as the reward for monetary gain and a belief of joining a relevant world cause drive some of the recruits. Finally, it is unknown what internal motivators exist for ISIS fighters, homegrown or foreign. However, the genocidal campaign that ISIS creates is a strong characteristic of the group’s identity (Stakelbeck, 2015). ISIS understands that many people of today rely heavily on social media such as Facebook and twitter to receive information and view the

The study answers some basic questions, including such fundamental issues as “how many Twitter users support ISIS, who they are, and how many of those supporters take part in its highly organized online activities”. According to the data collected, ISIS-supporting accounts had an average of about 1,000 followers each and

Faria and Arce (2005) said, “The resource of any terrorist organization is its militants: recruited members usually spawn from a pool of supporters” (p. 2). In my personal experience of multiple deployments in combat zones, VEO’s most commonly attempt to recruit people into their organization making the local populace feel they are victims of political injustice. One method of changing the way people’s thoughts of the current government is to delegitimize it. VEO’s will attempt to teach people how the official current government is corrupt and does not have their concerns or livelihood in its best interest. VEO’s will attempt demonstrate how the government they want to impose is considerably better on many fronts and not corrupt. Once the local populace supports the VEO, the next step is to identify people who could potentially benefit the organization the most. After identifying these people, the indoctrination phase of the recruitment process begins. Full indoctrinated into the VEO identifies a person as a member of a particular organization. As a full member of a VEO a person is an

The recruitment and selection process refers to where organisations use various methods in order to generate a pool of candidates that are suited to the job at hand and align with the organisations goals. With technology being used and relied on by many in the business world, it is important that organisations stay relevant by implementing both web-based applications methods and scientific tests to attract the best possible people for the job. These both have their benefits and negatives when used in the recruitment and selection process, but with some modifications, they would further aid organisations to attract the best possible employees to fit into the job.