Times of India
NEW DELHI, Apr 4: Enforcement agencies are now spending more time patrolling the worldwide web as terrorists and drug syndicates have increasingly taken to using encrypted chatrooms and e-payment gateways to transfer key documents and carry out transactions.
In a recent drug bust case in Delhi, it was found that the syndicate was using Skype chatroom, an encrypted chat forum difficult for intelligence agencies to crack, to transfer documents. Transfer of files over Skype are encrypted end-to-end and protects privacy when transferring information.
Sources said the drug syndicate exchanged documents with its network in Europe in the chatroom and this was in complete privacy, out of reach of the cyber cops. Payments are believed to have come through e-gateways.
"We now spend more time patrolling the Net and doing electronic surveillance than snooping physical targets," confessed a senior intelligence official. He said there was a need for all enforcement agencies to create exclusive cyber cells and dedicate a fixed time for Net patrolling. To avoid transactions of "dirty money" through their gateways, many online e-payment companies keep away from deals relating to lotteries, Internet pharmaceutical purchases and memberships of pornographic websites.
However, a Sweden-based online e-payment company, Penova , is currently under investigation jointly by Indian and US authorities over huge transactions of "dirty money".
Besides, it is also suspected that many drug and other criminal syndicates have stakes in it. Penova had allegedly been found indulging in high-risk transactions, which other accredited online payment firms refuse, an official associated with the probe said.
Gone are the days when terrorists infiltrated through land boundaries. Now, they use bits and bytes in the form of sophisticated technologies to attack targets and provide virtual training to new recruits through specially created websites.
Many jehadi websites offer tutorials on making bombs, firing surface-to-surface missiles, shooting targets besides engaging in propaganda warfare, a fact that has been corroborated in the past by various security agencies, including the Pentagon which had testified before the US Congress that it monitored some 5,000-odd jehadi sites.
However, enhanced surveillance on some of the tagged websites is pushing jehadis to neutral web addresses offering PC-to-PC phone calls and one-to-one chats that are secure and encrypted.
Making calls from these websites are free of cost and cannot be tapped by intelligence agencies as they are encrypted. Encryption ensures that no other party can eavesdrop on the call or read the instant messages.