GCC considers electronic army to fight terror

The establishment of a Gulf electronic army would help to stem the spread of terrorist groups, which use the Internet and social media in their recruitment, communication and fundraising operations, experts told Al-Mashareq.

Although the establishment of an electronic army requires considerable preparation and resources, it will facilitate the arrest of terrorists or those who propagate or sympathise with extremist ideology, they said.

The Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) recently endorsed scientific research presented by Saudi digital forensics expert Abdulrazaq al-Morjan titled, "Gulf Observatory and Electronic Army… A Tool to Fight Cyber-Terrorism Activities".

Al-Morjan's research, presented at a counter-extremism conference held in Kuwait from January 15th to 17th, addressed the need to respond to regional challenges by pro-actively monitoring extremist activity online through the establishment of GCC electronic army units.

These units would monitor the online accounts of terrorist and extremist groups as well as extremism inside Gulf states, track online recruitment operations, "and work to dismantle terrorist groups", he said.

The units would issue monthly reports on extremist activity to Gulf states, he said, and would help to design training programmes based on their findings.

Innovative idea

"The concept of a Gulf electronic army to fight terrorism is a modern and important one," said King Saud University professor Salman Dahi, who specialises in the evolution of social networking.

It should be implemented "in a well-thought out manner that reflects actual reality", he told Al-Mashareq.

Terrorist groups have come to rely on the Internet for recruitment operations, internal communication, planning attacks and as a means to secure financial resources and donations, he said.

This is especially the case at present, when terrorist activity "relies heavily on individual attacks carried out by lone wolves in cluster networks", he said.

Online communication is an essential link between these individuals and determines the success or failure of their operations, he said, adding that "therefore, fighting terrorism must be done [using] the same tools".

Most GCC member states have electronic teams affiliated with security institutions, whose task is to monitor and track terrorists, submit reports on these activities and co-ordinate with internal and external security bodies.

The issue of co-ordination between countries is key "given the fact that terrorism has become a cross-border [threat] that is not tied to any one state", he said.

"Therefore, the establishment of a unified electronic army would unify electronic security efforts and save the time and effort needed to ensure the success of actual surveillance and arrest operations," Dahi said.

This is not an easy proposition, however, because such a system requires meticulous preparation and the development of a legal formula that facilitates ground intervention when a terrorist threat is detected, he added.

Cyber-warfare is a long process

The establishment of an electronic army whose mission is to fight terrorism is a matter that is both sensitive and complex, said Fadel al-Hindi, a supervisor at King Abdulaziz University’s Centre for Social and Humanities Research.

Monitoring terrorists or recruits also should include the monitoring of groups that promote terrorism via online forums and social media, he said.

"Monitoring terrorist ideology promoters and recruiters is a priority in the war on terrorism," he added. "Hence, the electronic army must mount a counter-propaganda by monitoring the accounts of terrorists and responding to them with evidence and logic to expose [their] lies and falsification of facts."

This necessitates that the electronic army include "a group of trusted preachers who have the ability of quick retort to counter the ideas that terrorist groups are trying to disseminate online", he said.

Many countries are conducting electronic monitoring on a large scale, said Helwan University communications professor Mahmoud Shaheen, who also serves as technical adviser to an Egyptian telecommunications company.

Many of these efforts are well-funded, he told Al-Mashareq, adding that many arrests have resulted from electronic monitoring activity.

Electronic armies monitor suspect online activity, from communication with terrorists to the promotion of extremist ideology to visiting websites operated by terror groups or forums devoted to the manufacture of weapons or explosives, he said.

Cyber-warfare is not an easy task, Shaheen said, because terrorists around the world do not always communicate via "the conventional web known to all, but rather via the deep web or the dark web".

They make use of websites that are hidden from the public and require special skills or instructions to access, he added.

Cyber-warfare will require close communication and co-operation with other electronic armies around the world to achieve the desired results, he said.

There also will need to be close co-operation with social networking service companies and website providers to suspend accounts that are proven to be propagating extremist ideology or promoting violence, he said.

"This is not an easy task because it requires meticulous examination of those accounts in order to report them quickly, especially as thousands of accounts appear and disappear every day owing to these pursuits," Shaheen said.