New Software To Identify ISIS Recruiters On Social Media

New Software To Identify ISIS Recruiters On Social Media

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ISIS is busy producing many videos to post online, trying to recruit more fighters to join its ranks, which is terrorizing Iraq and Syria. Ironically enough, the terror organization is using the internet, which is one of the most western tools available to them, with na emphasis on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and various chats.

After standing helpless in front of countless internet accounts spreading propoganda and incapable of blocking each and every one, as more are being created every day, the Russian security services have decided to try a different method.

Russian researchers are now working on a new computer software to locate potential ISIS recruiters on line, this to prevent the recruiting efforts from the very start. Researchers are trying build a profile of a potential recruiter and then implement it in a computer software which will try to catch the actual ones on social media.

The computer program known as “Laplace’s Demon” has been already monitoring social networks for extremist groups since this spring to prevent calls for mass unrest, and will be upgraded to be used in a slightly different manner, starting 2016. After the program will begin hunting for social network accounts belonging to potential ISIL recruiters, specialists of the Center will then send the account owners a message in Arabic and then linguistically examine the answer. The user will then be advised to follow a link, which, in turn, will provide the IT-specialists with his IP-address, operating system and browser details. With this data, specially trained staff, such as hackers can get full access to their computers. This way, researchers can begin searching for tell-tale signs, such as misinterpreted quotations of the Koran, which can be identified by religious scholars, as well as a general linguistic analysis undertaken by experts in Arab studies.

Few experts suggest that the researchers should focus on a potential victim, which can then be used to help to prevent victims being signed up to the terrorist group, rather than reconstructing a portrait of a recruiter. We should understand why a person is open to recruitment,” Alexei Filatov, Vice President of the International Association of Veterans of the Antiterrorism Alfa Group said.

Russia has been concerned for some time of the ISIS recruitment phenomenon, and mostly of recruiting fighters from its own borders. Last June Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Syromolotov, said that the number of fighters from Russia and Caucasus in Syria is about 2,200 people. It’s obvious that the current Russian presence in Syria is increasing fear of the soldiers returning home and of of the role they might play in inciting terror and guerilla warfare when they do.

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