Fast-moving developments in cyber-security are making life difficult for intelligence agencies tracking international terrorists, amid fears that militant groups may soon try to convert Facebook users to their cause.
The warnings came as Theresa May , the Home Secretary, launched the Government's latest counter-terrorism strategy, Contest.
"Technological change and the diversification of the threat is making maintaining proper intelligence coverage increasingly difficult," she said.
The publication of the document comes a day after the threat level in the UK was lowered from "severe" to "substantial", which means that there is a strong possibility of an attack.
While al Qaeda has been badly set back by the killing of Osama bin Laden , and by drone strikes against its leadership in Pakistan, Mrs May said the movement had fragmented.
This has raised the threats from Yemen, Somalia and parts of North Africa.
A younger generation of terrorists is now using "off-the-shelf secure communication technology" to stay in touch with one another.
Software which encrypts SMS messages are now widely available and peer-to-peer networks and file sharing software has been making it hard for western intelligence services to monitor terrorist groups.
The document goes on to warn that a shift to "darknets" - private internet communities - among terrorist groups was growing and that a shift to cloud computing - the storing of information online - also made it easier for criminal organisations to share information.
"There has been a number of attempts by terrorist and extremist groups to 'invade' Facebook," the Contest document said.
A Home Office official explained that an invasion of Facebook means "the use of social networking sites to radicalise potential recruits and the development of virtual communities of extremists".
Last year Iran's nuclear programme was hit by the Stuxnet computer virus , which is reported to have destroyed some of the centrifuges used there to enrich uranium.
The evolution of a virus which could cross from the cyber to the physical world immediately raised fears in the West that its national infrastructure was vulnerable in times of cyber war.
China is the acknowledged world leader in developing the capacity to fight wars online.
So far there has been no evidence of significant cyber attacks by terror groups, although other anarchic organisations such as "anonymous" have disrupted a wide range of financial institutions which had blocked donations to WikiLeaks.
"We are investing in new systems and new capabilities," Mrs May said, to combat the threat.
She said new legislation would be introduced to allow the intelligence services to mine online and telephonic data along with "regulations and safeguards to ensure that the response to this technological challenge is both proportionate and appropriate".
Source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/terrorists-may-try-recruit-facebook-133834544.html
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