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Paris Attacks: Did Terrorists In France Use PlayStation 4?
ValueWalk.com
By Mark Melin • on November 16, 2015?
If the recent terrorist attacks in France expose anything it might be the difficulty security forces face in tracking potential terrorist communications. Even with a worldwide electronic dragnet on digital messages, identifying legitimate terrorists across billions upon billions of messages circling the globe every few minutes and cracking the code of terrorists disguising their messaging is a daunting and potentially impossible task for any security agency. Against this backdrop is a new theory that some of the French terrorist plot might have been discussed using undetectable coded messages on a PlayStation 4.
Terrorists Playstaion
As PlayStation counsel found in accused terrorist possession, were messages written on a wall firing bullet patterns using the software’s gun?
Belgium’s interior minister Jan Jambon was quoted as saying PlayStation 4 was a potential mode of transmission between terrorists around the globe. Jambon claims the video game counsel, which allows users around the world to battle back and forth with each other using games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops might be a method terrorists used to carry out real life attacks more horrific than the games themselves.
Unlike highly encrypted applications that destroy messages after they are sent, such as Whats App, Signal and Telegraph, PlayStation has proven hackable, with 77 million users impacted by a 2011 computer breach and a December 2014 security breach embarrassing several celebrities. PlayStation security is not so vaunted, but rather the breadth of the communication that is challenging, according to Jambon. PlayStation Network’s standard privacy policy states it will share information with security forces “when we believe in good faith that the law requires disclosure or that disclosure is necessary to protect or enforce the rights, property, safety, or security of ourselves or others” the privacy policy reads. The problem is monitoring nearly 100 million daily users, many of whom can be talking using code that cannot be easily picked up by electronic dragnets.
Not only can coded words and phrases communicated via text have unique meaning only known to tight terrorist cells, but in PlayStation terrorists might also use creative ways from within the game to send messages that cannot be detected by common software filtering. This could include using a gun inside the game software to fire patterns of bullets on a wall that sends a message that is virtually undetectable by text-filtering software, a Telegraph report noted. The report said there is little evidence tying the PlayStation 4 or its vast network to the terrorist plot other than a game counsel was confiscated from the home of one of the suspected terrorists.
French President calls for increased surveillance as terrorist political battle in the U.S. takes shape over security holes in accepting Syrian immigrants
As French President Hollande reacts to the latest terrorist event, calling for more surveillance and increased police spending, the realistic capabilities of even entirely unrestricted electronic eavesdropping on digital communications is questioned by a former homeland security official. “We can’t wait for good intelligence. We’ll never have it,” Former Homeland Security Assistant Director for Infrastructure Protection Robert Liscouski told CNBC. “Intelligence is never perfect. You have to expect these threats are always going to occur and you have to be prepared,” he said, touting the need for preventative measures. Liscouski is currently president of Implant Sciences Corporation, which provides tracking and detection technology used in part to identify root out terrorists. The company recently reported record earnings.
As President Obama continues to advocate Syrian refugees enter the U.S., categorizing attempts to stop the flow as “shameful,” Liscouski points out that “99 percent of the refugees are seeking asylum for legitimate reasons. It’s on the backs of the refugees we will find terrorists,” he said, echoing a warning the Saudis gave in early September that Syrian refugees included ISIS terrorists. FBI Director Robert Muller has been reported to have said the U.S. does not have appropriate methods to prevent terrorists from crossing in the U.S., an issue echoed by Liscouski. He told CNBC it is difficult to identify the terrorists as they come across the border because “we don’t have good controls.” He said Syrian refugees “can’t identify their backgrounds and that fingerprints are not being used. “We’re letting people come across in mass, and therefore they have a very easy method to hide.”
The issue appears to becoming political, as Texas Governor Greg Abbot today announced he sent a letter to President Obama saying that Syrian refugees will not be allowed in the state. The Republican governor joined other Republicans in opposing Syrian immigration to the U.S.
Liscouski said “we need strong immigration and enforcement policies,” but policy solutions may take time. “We can’t wait, we need to protect these targets today. We need preventative measures,” he said, noting that “we will never know when a terrorist is coming across to” potentially seek U.S. soft targets.
Mark may hold positions in one or more of the companies mentioned in this article.
Written by Mark Melin
Mark Melin is an alternative investment practitioner whose specialty is recognizing a trading program’s strategy and mapping it to a market environment and performance driver. He provides analysis of managed futures investment performance and commentary regarding related managed futures market environment. A portfolio and industry consultant, he was an adjunct instructor in managed futures at Northwestern University / Chicago and has written or edited three books, including High Performance Managed Futures (Wiley 2010) and The Chicago Board of Trade’s Handbook of Futures and Options (McGraw-Hill 2008). Mark was director of the managed futures division at Alaron Trading until they were acquired by Peregrine Financial Group in 2009, where he was a registered associated person (National Futures Association NFA ID#: 0348336). Mark has also worked as a Commodity Trading Advisor himself, trading a short volatility options portfolio across the yield curve, and was an independent consultant to various broker dealers and futures exchanges, including OneChicago, the single stock futures exchange, and the Chicago Board of Trade. He is also Editor, Opalesque Futures Intelligence and Editor, Opalesque Futures Strategies.
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