The terrorist group al-Qaeda may be seeking Internet access to computer switches that control utilities and emergency services to cause harm or enhance more conventional attacks, the Washington Postreported today.
The FBI has been investigating a suspicious pattern of surveillance of computers systems throughout the US from browsers in the Middle East and South Asia, said the daily who had access to a "forensic summary" of the inquiry.
Investigators have found evidence in the Internet that al-Qaeda members spend time on sites that offer software and programming instructions for digital switches that run power, water, transport and communications grids.
Captured al-Qaeda members have also described intentions to use such cyber tools in some interrogations, the daily said.
Some of the "multiple casings of sites" suggest planning for conventional terrorist attacks, while others focus on digital devices that allow remote control of services such as fire dispatch and equipment such as pipelines.
Together with information on such devices found on al-Qaeda computers seized this year, the electronic surveillance has led investigators to believe al Qaeda are close to using the Internet as an instrument of bloodshed.
They believe the terrorists could be planning, for example, to command the floodgates in a dam, or high voltage at power substations to destroy lives and property.
However, the US government is divided on the extent of the cyberthreat. The Defense Department believes al-Qaeda prefer simple, reliable plans that don't rely on sophisticated computerware, while the White House and the FBI believe the threat is very real.
AFP