Abstract
Terrorists and extremists have become mainstream exploiters of the Internet beyond routine communication operations and dramatically increased their own ability to influence the outside world. Although this alternate side of the Internet, referred to as the “Dark Web,” has recently received extensive government and media attention, the terrorists/extremists’ Internet usage is still under-researched because of the lack of systematic Dark Web content collection and analysis methodologies. To address this research gap, we explore an integrated approach for identifying and collecting terrorist/extremist Web contents. We also propose a framework called the Dark Web Attribute System (DWAS) to enable quantitative Dark Web content analysis from three perspectives: technical sophistication, media richness, and Web interactivity. Using the proposed methodology, we collected and examined more than 200,000 multimedia Web documents created by 86 Middle Eastern multi-lingual terrorist/extremist organizations. In our comparison of terrorist/extremist Web sites to U.S. government Web sites, we found that terrorists/extremist groups exhibited similar levels of Web knowledge as U.S. government agencies. We also found that the terrorists/extremist groups are as effective as the U.S. government agencies in terms of supporting communications and interaction using Web technologies. Based on our case study results, we believe that the DWAS is an effective framework to analyze the technical sophistication of terrorist/extremist groups’ Internet usage and our Dark Web analysis methodology could contribute to an evidence-based understanding of the applications of Web technologies in the global terrorism phenomena.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Albertsen, K.: The Paradigma Web Harvesting Environment. In: 3rd ECDL Workshop on Web Archives, Trondheim, Norway (2003)
Chen, H., Qin, J., Reid, E., Chung, W., Zhou, Y., Xi, W., Lai, G., Bonillas, A.A., Sageman, M.: The Dark Web Portal: Collecting and Analyzing the Presence of Domestic and International Terrorist Groups on the Web. In: Proceedings of International IEEE Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (2004)
Chou, C.: Interactivity and interactive functions in web-based learning systems: a technical framework for designers. British Journal of Educational Technology 34(3), 265–279 (2003)
Demchak, C., Friis, C., La Porte, T. M.: Webbing Governance: National Differences in Constructing the Face of Public Organizations. Handbook of Public Information Systems. G. D. Garson. NYC, Marcel Dekker (2001)
Denning, D.E.: Information Operations and Terrorism. Journal of Information Warfare (draft) (2004), http://www.jinfowar.com
ISTS: Examining the Cyber Capabilities of Islamic Terrorist Groups. Report, Institute for Security Technology Studies (2004), http://www.ists.dartmouth.edu/
Delio, M.: Al Qaeda Web sites Refuses to Die. Wired (2003), http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,58356-2,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_next1
Jackson, B.J.: Technology Acquisition by Terrorist Groups: Threat Assessment Informed by Lessons from Private Sector Technology Adoption. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 24, 83–213 (2001)
Jesdanun, A.: WWW: Terror’s Channel of Choice. CBS News (2004)
Palmer, J.W., Griffith, D.A.: An Emerging Model of Web Site Design for Marketing. Communications of the ACM 41(3), 45–51 (1998)
Reid, E., Qin, J., Chung, W., Xu, J., Zhou, Y., Schumaker, R., Sageman, M., Chen, H.: Terrorism Knowledge Discovery Project: a Knowledge Discovery Approach to Addressing the Threats of Terrorism. In: Chen, H., Moore, R., Zeng, D.D., Leavitt, J. (eds.) ISI 2004. LNCS, vol. 3073, pp. 125–145. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)
Reilly, B., Tuchel, G., Simon, J., Palaima, C., Norsworthy, K., Myrick, L.: Political Communications Web Archiving: Addressing Typology and Timing for Selection, Preservation and Access. In: Proceedings of 3rd ECDL Workshop on Web Archives (2003)
Schneider, S.M., Foot, K., Kimpton, M., Jones, G.: Building thematic web collections: challenges and experiences from the September 11 Web Archive and the Election 2002 Web Archive. In: Proceedings of the 3rd ECDL Workshop on Web Archives (2003)
Thomas, T. L.: Al Qaeda and the Internet: The Danger of Cyberplanning. Parameters, 112-23 (2003), http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/03spring/thomas.htm
Tsfati, Y., Weimann, G.: Terror on the Internet. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism 25, 317–332 (2002), www.terrorism.com
Trevino, L.K., Lengel, R.H., Daft, R.L.: Media symbolism, media richness, and media choice in organizations: A symbolic interactionist perspective. Communication Research 14(5), 553–574 (1987)
Weimann, G.: How Modern Terrorism Use the Internet. Special Report, U.S. Institute of Peace (2004), http://www.terror.net http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr116.pdf
Zhou, Y., Reid, E., Qin, J., Chen, H., Lai, G.: U.S. Domestic Extremist Groups on the Web: Link and Content Analysis. IEEE Intelligent Systems Special Issue on Homeland Security 20(5), 44–51 (2005)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2006 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Qin, J., Zhou, Y., Reid, E., Lai, G., Chen, H. (2006). Unraveling International Terrorist Groups’ Exploitation of the Web: Technical Sophistication, Media Richness, and Web Interactivity. In: Chen, H., Wang, FY., Yang, C.C., Zeng, D., Chau, M., Chang, K. (eds) Intelligence and Security Informatics. WISI 2006. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3917. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11734628_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11734628_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-33361-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-33362-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)