German Anti-Terrorism Forces Go Online Looking for Extremists

The German authorities try to make another step in the fight against terrorism and attempts to move online, for a closer surveillance of potential terrorists. Germany's top anti-subversion official, Federal Prosecutor General Monika Harms, says that the web is becoming one of the most popular ways for organizing terrorist attacks, as many of the extremists go online to give orders and set up some details of their attacks, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported today. Because of that, a closer surveillance of the potential terrorists would be welcomed, the German official thinks.

"It provides a technical platform for new forms of telephony and written communication, where effective encryption is able de facto to prevent interception by third parties. It is indispensable for investigative authorities to have access to the communications of suspects. There are established instruments, such as telephone tapping, or the use of technology to establish the location of mobile phones. But technical change forces one to constantly review the technical arsenal", she said according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

Germany is one of the countries which tried to promote laws that would permit the authorities to hack suspects' computers, in order to look for incriminatory evidence and other material that would help them in the fight against criminal actions. Although it may sound a little bit unfair and like a privacy infringement, some of the German officials thought this would be a great way to reduce the illegal activities in their country.

Getting back to the online terrorism, more and more extremists go online to organize attacks, get information about their targets and even find new recruits for their groups. It has been proven by a recent analysis, which reveals that thousands of terrorist websites are already available out there, while several hundreds are being published every year.

In fact, even the terrorists admitted they went online for organizing attacks. For example, some extremists confirmed they used Google Earth to get details about the JFK International Airport, one of their latest targets. However, the authorities managed to stop them before they launched the attack.