The terrorist organization “Islamic State” increasingly tries via its supporters on the Internet to find young people to carry out terrorist attacks in Germany. This phenomenon of the so-called “headhunters”, as the German tabloid Bild writes, said the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution of Germany Hans-Georg Maasen at a conference called “Western Democracies’ Response to the Threat from Islamic Terrorism.”
“They (the headhunters – Ed.) purposefully establish contact with young people on the Internet and try to inculcate radical ideas with them through Islamist propaganda in order to subsequently use them for terrorist attacks,” Maasen said.
According to expert on terrorism Peter Neumann of King’s College London, this became “one of the methods of recruiting terrorists for a terrorist organization.” “ISIS more and more often recruits its supporters with the help of such virtual mentors and through messengers using encryption, accompanies their charges right up to the very act of terrorism,” notes Neumann.
The advantage of this method, according to the expert, is obvious: “Backstage leaders can manage their recruits through free messengers with encryption such as Whatsapp or Telegram, and so that intelligence agencies or other agencies will not be able to learn about the plans of terrorists.”
The chairman of the German Police Trade Union Oliver Malchow admits that “encryption in such programs is so effective that intelligence agencies can not hack it.” This should be changed,” Malchow is sure.