After being hounded out of other social networks, ISIS has created its own secure messaging app on Android, according to the Ghost Security Group (GhostSec).
The Alwari app, says GhostSec is being used by members of the terrorist group to communicate with each other. The security watchdog discovered, “encrypted communications features although rudimentary to Telegram or other[s],” according to emails received by Defense One.
ISIS has been finding it difficult to use social networks such as Telegram and WhatsApp after groups such as Anonymous have been actively trying to disrupt what they get up to online.
Although that hasn’t stopped ISIS from using sites such as Tumblr to ask others for advice on life inside the caliphate.
The security on the app isn’t as tight or as sophisticated as those found on Telegram or WhatsApp according to Fortune, but it does mean ISIS can feel reassured knowing no one is going to start reporting users or build a backdoor for governments to snoop around.
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The app does not currently sit in the Google Play store, users have to instead discover it by searching in some of the darker corners of the Web.
As we reported yesterday, American politicians are starting to wonder whether building backdoors into messaging apps and operating systems might be the best way to catch members of terrorist groups from using social networks to plot future attacks.
But if groups such as ISIS now have the technical know-how to build their own social networks, the only people that will suffer from an end to encryption on mainstream services is the general public.
➤ ISIS Has Its Own Secure Messaging App [Fortune]
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