Terrorists may be using virtual worlds such as
Second
Life to meet and exchange ideas, security experts warned today.
The claims were made by the
Intelligence
Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), part of the US intelligence
community which looks at developing technologies.
"The virtual world is the next great frontier and in some respects is still
very much a Wild West environment," the organisation said.
"Unfortunately, what started out as a benign environment where people would
congregate to share information or explore fantasy worlds is now offering the
opportunity for religious/political extremists to recruit, rehearse, transfer
money and ultimately engage in information warfare or worse with impunity."
IARPA recommends setting up 'Red' teams of intelligence operatives who would
investigate virtual worlds and track potential threats.
The CIA
already has a presence in Second Life which it uses it for meetings and
training.
However, the IARPA report has been questioned by privacy campaigners. Jim
Dempsey, policy director at the
Center
for Democracy and Technology, pointed out that the government had said the
same things about mobile phones and the internet.
"They want to control this technology and make it even easier to tap than it
already is," he said.
"When the government is finished, every new technology becomes a more
powerful surveillance tool than the technology before it."
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