The Hindu Business Line : Policing the Internet

The inspiration for this fortnight's column comes from a recent TV debate in which I participated. Entitled `Policing the Net', this drew attention to the mushrooming of Web sites that promote a deliberate `Hate India' campaign with absolute impunity. We know that these have been engineered by our unfriendly neighbours, who forever want to destabilise us.

The question is, how far should we be concerned about them, and should we act against them? Do we invoke the State's prerogative to ban them?

Actually, the anchor of the programme asked me in a chat before the recording began, as to whether, in view of the impracticality of such a ban, it would not be wise to ignore such puerile campaigns. I responded by saying that the apprehension a law was going to be difficult to implement was no ground for giving up drafting it and putting it on the statute book, as long as the rationale for such a law exists.

The laws against corruption and its close cousin `prostitution' are good examples. The experts who spoke on the occasion were clear that the Internet should not be allowed to be hijacked by a few who were trying to pollute cyberspace at the cost of the billions of others genuinely interested in acquiring or disseminating knowledge through it.

At the same time, they warned that any precipitate action would destroy the Net's fundamental rationale of arriving at the truth or near about it through debate and dissent in a democratic manner. In essence, it boiled down to the question of how much we control the material that is put on a Web site.

Invariably, observers refer to how China has been literally steamrolling corporations such as Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft so that they abstain from posting any information which may not show China exactly in favourable light. The point is, a democratic country such as India cannot do all that a totalitarian State does.

Then, how do we balance our national security needs with civil right demands and expectations? These and other issues germane to the problem of the expanding terrorist use of cyber space are handled competently by Professor Gabriel Weimann of Israel's Haifa University in his latest work Terror on the Internet (2006) (United States Institute of Peace Press, Washington D.C).

Goldmine of information

Weimann does not fantasise the subject but is clinical, and has nearly written a textbook that is a goldmine of information. What bothers him most is the proliferation of sites that peddle terrorism to different age groups.

One site run by Hamas is meant exclusively for children! This, according to Weimann, "presents in comic book style, stories that encourage children to engage in jihad and become martyrs." The Hezbollah also does not lag behind in fomenting hatred against Israel. In Weimann's count, there are more than 4,000 Web sites at any time, which are directly or obliquely supportive of the terrorist cause. Some groups such as the al Qaeda have multiple sites. Actually, they have experts who take care of day-to-day chores involved in running a Web site.

I am told that one al Qaeda operative, Irhabi 007, arrested by the UK Police in October 2005, was known better for his computer prowess, than for involvement in any field operations. His main responsibility was one of online training of cadres on how to hack antagonistic Web sites, and how to communicate in cyberspace without being caught by the law enforcement agencies. He also distributed weapons manuals and videotapes of bombings, again online.

Do you also know that two of the 9/11 hijackers refused to check in at a hotel in Florida only because it did not have round-the-clock Internet access in their rooms? Further, at least nine flight reservations on the fateful day were bought by them over the Internet. All these show how dependent on the Net are terrorists, who may, some time in the future, unleash all their violence only through cyber space and be never seen face to face by their victims. Is this prospect not forbidding, although there is one school of thought that believes that the threat of cyber terrorism has been blown out of proportions. I hope the latter are right and will never be disproved.

We must thank our stars that use of cyberspace by anti-social elements gives us, most of the time, an earthly chance to identify transactions that suggest collusive action to indulge in militancy. Committing crime through other means could many a time leave us blind, as the police often find to their dismay. This is why `policing the Net', if it would only mean keeping a tab on traffic between suspects, (and not merely arm twisting of service providers), becomes an important part of bureaucratic routine.

Fighting back

Prof Weimann devotes a whole chapter to `Fighting Back', in which he catalogues the various measures that law enforcement agencies in the world, especially the US, have done to maintain the pressure on terrorists.

The Carnivore software used by the FBI to monitor cyber traffic is reported to be extremely effective. It is said to be a sophisticated tool that operates like a telephone wiretap and its capacity to scan millions of e-mails in a second makes it a powerful weapon against terrorist machinations. Another FBI weapon is the `Magic Lantern' that involves introducing a programme on the suspect's computer itself. It records the latter's keystrokes whenever he types, and this helps to get hold of his password and encryption tools.

Software such as these, however, raises serious privacy issues that can never be sorted out to the comfort of the average citizen. The opposition to Patriot Act, which came into force in the US after 9/11 and enhanced police powers to keep track of goings-on in cyber space, comes mainly on this ground of assault on privacy.

In Asia, Singapore has come out with some stringent regulations to counter terrorism, although these are aimed mainly at pornography and irregularities in e-commerce. In the ultimate analysis, it is a battle of wits between the computer-savvy terrorist and the anxiety-ridden policeman.

While the former has the edge that is provided by the anonymity of cyber space, the growing sophistication of the tools in the hands of those out to neutralise him offers hopes that the contest is not that unequal as many believe it to be.

(The writer is a former CBI Director who is currently Adviser (Security) to TCS Ltd.)

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