Hacktivists Find Islamic State Mobile App Where Terrorists Spread Propaganda And Beheading Videos

Ghost Security Group discovered that the Islamic State has an Android app that circulates propaganda from Amaq News Agency, the terrorist group's channel which broadcasts videos of beheadings and messages of attacks on a global scale.

For the uninitiated, the hacktivist group is a volunteer organization that's made up of counterintelligence and computer specialists dedicated to disrupt ISIL's online activity. It recently took down tens of thousands of ISIL-linked Twitter accounts. Anonymous also shut down about 6,000 Twitter accounts related to ISIL after the Paris attack.

Supporters of the terrorist group apparently share the links to install the ISIL app via Telegram, which allows users to send heavily encrypted messages that disappear afterward. Telegram banned a number of ISIL channels when it caught wind of the organization's movements on the messaging app.

"They want to create a broadcast capability that is more secure than just leveraging Twitter and Facebook. IS has always been looking for a way to provide easy access to all of the material," Michael Smith, a counter-terrorism officer at Kronos Advisory, tells CS Monitor.

The app also allows the Islamic State to enlist new members.

On Dec. 6, 2015, Hillary Clinton said the Islamic State has become the "most effective recruiter in the world," urging Silicon Valley tech companies Facebook and Google, to name a few, to put in more effort in obstructing the terrorist group's online operations.

"We need to put the great disrupters at work at disrupting ISIS," she says.

On the Internet companies' side, however, executing such security measures is no easy task. First off, they worry that the public will consider them as tools of the government when they obediently comply. Second, online militants might figure out a way to breach their systems when they become transparent about how their screenings work.

Photo : Day Donaldson | Flickr