Saipov, ISIS and Growing Violent Online Extremism in Pakistan

ISIS and similar terrorist organizations have been using social media for spreading radical propaganda online. The trove of ISIS images and videos found on the cell phone of New York City terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov once again demonstrated the ubiquity of online radicalizing materials and the ongoing unwillingness of governments and tech companies to take necessary steps to address the alarming issue. 

According to forensic evidence obtained from Saipov's cell phone by law enforcement officials it contained more than 4,000 extremists images and around 90 terror related videos, many of which contained propoganda material such as ISIS fighters killing innocent prisoners and running over them with a tank or making kids slaughter foreign spies. 

The murders in New York are the continuation of a sad series of tragedies fueled by the presence of violent extremist content online that has been radicalizing youth in countries like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

The government believes that in the interest of public safety, it is important that tech companies like Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook, YouTube, Google and many others should be held accountable of misuse of their platforms and should be blocked as they are siding with terror organizations by facilitating them in spreading propoganda under the guise of freedom of expression. They are also of the view that Tech companies soaring profits should be utilized to address the issue and they need to do more to counter the menace. Facebook’s profits climbed 79 percent year-over-year to $4.7 billion and they should be spending some of the millions to counter the negative use of its platform.

On the other hand tech companies are of the view that they are doing everything in their power to counter the meance from deploying AI monitoring system for detecting violent content towards manually documenting and sharing information with law enforcement agencies for surging the presence of extremist and terrorist materials online. 

Pakistan has been at the forefront of war against extremists and has resorted to the policy of blocking URLs for the permanent removal of violent and dangerous extremist content. The success of the approach is itself questionable given it has hardly been able to control the spreading of propaganda online. Further this approach has also faced criticism from rights advocates and human rights organization as a tool to crack hard on dissent in Balochistan and KPK. 

Given the complex nature of cyber propaganda the government needs to change its approach and involve tech companies and rights organizations in adopting 21cn strategies to counter radical extremists content online. Killing the messenger has been an ineffective strategy to counter the growing menace. Unless, a long term strategy is not adopted online extremism and radicalization of youth on the internet is set to grow in Pakistan at an alarming rate. 

Tips for Protecting Critical Infrastructure

Most of our Nation’s critical infrastructure now runs on the Internet. The systems that enable us to live our daily lives starting from the information systems, financial institutions, transportation systems, and more are all dependent upon a digital ecosystem. As cyber breaches continue to rise in frequency and scale, it is critical for all Pakistanis to understand their role and take steps to protect our critical national infrastructures.

SIMPLE TIPS 

Every day people connect to critical infrastructures without even realizing it from their smart phones, tablets, and computers. Here are three ways to do your part in helping secure our critical infrastructure by protecting your devices that connect to critical infrastructure systems and practicing safe online habits. 

Keep a clean machine. 

Keep the security software, operating system, and web browser on your devices updated. Keeping the software on your devices up to date will prevent attackers from being able to take advantage of known vulnerabilities.

Enable stronger authentication. 

Always enable stronger authentication for an extra layer of security beyond the password that is available on most major email, social media and financial accounts. Stronger authentication (e.g., multi-factor authentication that can use a one-time code texted to a mobile device) helps verify that a user has authorized access to an online account. 

When in doubt, throw it out. 

Links in email and online posts are often the way cyber criminals compromise your mobile devices. If it looks suspicious even if you know the source it’s best to delete or, if appropriate, mark it as ”junk email.” 

Make your passwords long & strong. Use complex passwords with a combination of numbers, symbols, and letters. Use unique passwords for different accounts. 

Secure your Wi-Fi network. Your home’s wireless router is the gateway entrance for cybercriminals to access all of your connected devices. Secure your Wi-Fi network, and your digital devices, by changing the factory-set default password and username.