By Jana Winter
EXCLUSIVE: If you’re on Facebook, Al Qaeda wants to friend you.
Terrorist groups are using Facebook to share operational information and to target, recruit and radicalize members of the general public, according to a Department of Homeland Security report obtained by FoxNews.com.
The DHS report, “Terrorist Use of Social Networking Sites: Facebook Case Study,” notes while terrorists have been using social networking sites for quite some time, their strategies for exploiting Facebook have evolved and that they have learned “the inherent value in exploiting a non-ideological medium.”
According to the November report, terrorists and jihadists use Facebook as:
— a way to share operational and tactical information, including bomb recipes and weapons maintenance;
— a gateway to extremist forums;
— a media outlet for propaganda;
— a source of remote reconnaissance for targeting purposes.
“Every person who connects to the Internet with a computer needs to take this issue seriously,” says Steve Graham, senior director for EC Council, a cybersecurity certification membership organization. “Reports like this show we are figuratively sitting next to terrorists. So are our friends, our kids and anyone else who types http://www.” …
Read more: Fox News