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The Truth About Terrorists.net

A Q&A with Michael Kenney on how extremists are really using the Internet

4 min read

Much has been made of terrorists’ and Iraqi insurgents’ use of the Web. They’re posting how-to manuals on constructing a dirty bomb! They’re giving away secrets on how to attack chlorine tanks! But Michael Kenney, an assistant professor of public policy at Pennsylvania State University Harrisburg and author of From Pablo to Osama: Trafficking and Terrorist Networks, Government Bureaucracies, and Competitive Adaptation (Penn State University Press, 2007), says much of the importance attributed to such Web sites is unwarranted. Robert N. Charette, IEEE Spectrum contributing editor, spoke with Kenney in August about what he has come across while monitoring various insurgent Web sites.

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How Police Exploited the Capitol Riot’s Digital Records

Forensic technology is powerful, but is it worth the privacy trade-offs?

11 min read
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 Illustration of the silhouette of a person with upraised arm holding a cellphone in front of the U.S. Capitol building. Superimposed on the head is a green matrix, which represents data points used for facial recognition
Gabriel Zimmer
Green

The group of well-dressed young men who gathered on the outskirts of Baltimore on the night of 5 January 2021 hardly looked like extremists. But the next day, prosecutors allege, they would all breach the United States Capitol during the deadly insurrection. Several would loot and destroy media equipment, and one would assault a policeman.

No strangers to protest, the men, members of the America First movement, diligently donned masks to obscure their faces. None boasted of their exploits on social media, and none of their friends or family would come forward to denounce them. But on 5 January, they made one piping hot, family-size mistake: They shared a pizza.

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