'Jihadi' software goes online
2008-01-19 10:15
Dubai - An Islamist website often used by al-Qaeda supporters carried updated encryption software on Friday which it said would help Islamic militants communicate
with greater security on the internet.
The Mujahideen Secrets 2 was promoted as "the first Islamic programme for secure communications through networks with the highest technical level of encoding".
The software, available free on the password-protected Ekhlaas.org site which often carries al-Qaeda messages, is a newer version of Mujahideen Secrets issued in early 2007 by the Global Islamic Media Front, an al-Qaeda-linked web-based group.
"This special edition of the software was developed and issued by... Ekhlaas in order to support the mujahideen (holy war fighters) in general and the (al-Qaeda-linked group) Islamic State in Iraq in particular," the site said.
The efficacy of the new Arabic-language software to ensure secure e-mail and other communications could not be immediately gauged. But some security experts had warned that the wide distribution of its earlier version among Islamists and Arabic-speaking hackers could prove significant.
Al-Qaeda supporters widely use the internet to spread the group's statements through hundreds of Islamist sites where anyone can post messages. Al-Qaeda-linked groups also set up their own sites, which frequently have to move after being shut by internet service providers.
Al-Qaeda's own media arm, As-Sahab, has become increasingly sophisticated in recent years. It issued 97 audio and video web messages in 2007 compared with just 6 in 2002, according to IntelCentre, a US-based group that monitors Islamist sites.
Al-Qaeda and other groups have increasingly turned to the internet to win young Muslims over to their fight against Western countries and Western-backed governments.