The Cyber Terrorism Shadow Networks in Africa: AQIM and Boko Haram

Criminals have long leveraged the advances of new and evolving technology for gain or profit. The Internet, and its emerging information communication technologies, are no different. Both have changed the world of unlawful activity, providing it with a global reach that can touch anywhere in the world. Barriers to illegal cyber enterprises are limited only by access to a computer or Internet service. Terrorists have expertly used the forum to train, incite and recruit; and both criminals and terrorists have transitioned activities like money laundering to cyber space. By bypassing other more conventional media, the Internet, or cyber space as it is often called, has become an entirely new forum for cyber activity; activity that is often unconstrained by government censorship or traditional cultural norms.