Canadian Service

Security canadien du
Intelligence renseignement
Service de securite

Canada
• Just as the digital age has transformed commerce, entertainment
and personal communications, it has transformed terrorism

• The late AQ leader Anwar AI-Awlaki, a pioneer in

the terrorist use of digital media, used the apt term "Internet
Mujahedeen."

• Extremists now constitute virtual communities as well

as physical ones - and terrorist groups are thereby empowered
• The Internet and social media allow anyone to participate
in extremist activities from anywhere in the world

• Supporting a terrorist enterprise has never been

easier - only a click away

• The greatest terrorist threat is from extremists who are inspired,

enabled or directed by others online
• Extremists: increasingly tech savvy and sophisticated,
capable of building their own innovative secure solutions

• Two challenges: Anonymity and Encryption

• Weaponizing the Internet - and hiding within it

• As extremists become more skilled as online operators,

the national security threat increases proportionately
• From the physical Caliphate to a Virtual one
• A complex global problem requires global collaboration

"The Internet is a prime example of how terrorists can behave in a truly

transnational way; in response~ States need to think and function in an
equally transnational manner.n

- Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon