The threats emanating from virtual communities have traditionally fallen into distinct categories:
1. Web 1.0 style of threat, where individuals or groups would post information on the web with the express purpose of it being used to cause harm to national security.
2. Web 2.0 emergence of cyber-jihadi’s who used the availability of more sophisticated web-tools in order to organize and recruit on-line as well as tapping into the ability to create extensive on-line propaganda. This phenomena is again linked to real-life individuals and groups who seek to exploit the myriad benefits of virtualization.
3. Dare I say, Threat 3.0. The emergence of groups in virtual communities (including virtual worlds) who develop their grievances and targets on-line and then spill-out into real life.
This last point has remained theory rather than fact, although there have been indicators along this path. One of the most prominent has been the Patriot Nigra‘s – a Second Life based group, which conducts disruption attacks within the game but has for some time reportedly acted outside of Second Life . A recent post in the second life herald blog reports on the use by the PN of a tactic called swatting — this is the deliberate misdirection of the emergency services to a victims home.
Whether these claims are true or not they continue to point to a trend that looks set to continue – the creation of disaffected groups within virtual spaces, that then seek to pursue their agenda in real-life. When combined with the undoubted emergence of market-based terrorism (espoused by Philip Bobbitt) predicated on the vast proliferation of information — this trend is one worth watching.
[...] that at a later date. Roderick Jones is doing similar work and in a recent Metasecurity post asks when do virtual threats become real? I would argue that virtual threats are real and that our ideas of what constitutes violence require [...]