Recorded Future published a report to show that members of Al-Qaeda are developing a series of new encryption software in response to NSA surveillance.
In response to the Snowden’s revelations, members of a terrorist group of Al-Qaeda have started using alternative encryption mechanisms to avoid the adoption of alleged flawed cryptographic algorithms debated in the last months. The Threat Intelligence company, Recorded Future, has published a detailed report to demonstrate that members of Al-Qaeda have adopted new encryption applications for the first time, the firm also linked the event to the Snowden revelations.
“Since 2007, Al-Qaeda’s use of encryption technology has been based on the Mujahideen Secrets platform which has developed to include support for mobile, instant messaging, and Macs.
Following the June 2013 Edward Snowden leaks we observe an increased pace of innovation, specifically new competing jihadist platforms and three (3) major new encryption tools from three (3) different organizations – GIMF, Al-Fajr Technical Committee, and ISIS – within a three to five-month time frame of the leaks.” states the official blog post.
- Tashfeer al-Jawwal, a mobile encryption platform developed by the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF) and released in September 2013.
- Asrar al-Ghurabaa, another alternative encryption program developed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham and released in November 2013, around the same time the group broke away from the main Al-Qaeda following a power struggle.
- Amn al-Mujahid, an encryption software program developed by Al-Fajr Technical Committee which is a mainstream Al-Qaeda organization and released in December 2013.
- The original Mujahideen Secrets (Asrar al-Mujahideen) encryption software launched in 2007, primarily for use with email. Asrar has had multiple releases over time and is distributed by the Global Islamic Media Front.
- Asrar al-Dardashah, released by GIMF in February 2013, which is an encryption plugin for instant messaging based on the Pidgin platform – which connects to major US-based platforms.
- Tashfeer al-Jawwal is a mobile encryption program, again from GIMF, released in September 2013, based on Symbian and Android.
- Asrar al-Ghurabaa is yet another alternative encryption program, however importantly, released in November 2013 by Islamic State Of Iraq And Al-Sham (ISIS), which coincides with ISIS breaking off from main AQ after a power struggle.
- Amn al-Mujahid is an alternative encryption program released in December 2013. In this case from Al-Fajr Technical Committee (FTC) which is also a mainstream AQ outfit.