The BBC reports that one of a group of four men arrested in 2014 and accused of plotting terror attacks is said to have downloaded "Mujahedeen Secrets," an Al Qaeda-linked encryption software package for Microsoft Windows:
One of the four men accused of plotting "drive-by" shootings downloaded software to allow jihadists to exchange secret messages, a court has heard. Suhaib Majeed, 21, had "Mujahideen Secrets" on his laptop, the jury heard. Mr Majeed, along with Nathan Cuffy, 26, Nyall Hamlett, 25, and Tarik Hassane, 22, from west London, deny conspiracy to murder and preparing terrorist acts. It is alleged they were inspired by the Islamic State group and plotted to kill a police officer, soldier or civilian.
The Old Bailey[*] heard that Mr Majeed liaised via Skype, the internet-based communication software, with someone overseas who helped him download the software, which the prosecution said was designed for Islamist terrorists to exchange encrypted messages. The contact abroad told Mr Majeed to "stay sharp" but unknown to either of them he was already under surveillance by counter-terrorism officers, the court was told.
The prosecution says Mr Majeed and fellow defendant Mr Hassane were in frequent contact about how to cover their tracks using false names and addresses and a variety of SIM cards. The jury also saw evidence they had set up a code to share new phone numbers but Mr Majeed did not fully understand it, leading to a string of abusive messages from Mr Hassane.
They also used Google Street View to identify targets, so put that next on the list of things to be banned.
[*] The Old Bailey.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by francois.barbier on Sunday January 24 2016, @05:52PM
They allegedly breathed air, too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 24 2016, @06:35PM
Quick! Ban air, or the terrorists win!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 24 2016, @08:09PM
What about penises? Were they in possession of penises while committing their crimes?
And, brown. I suspect that they were terrorizing while brown.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Sunday January 24 2016, @08:42PM
no, everyone will just need to use a air tank with a unique serial number, so that we can track everyone's air.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 24 2016, @09:32PM
Back in the day when mobile phones were becoming popular it was always,"And the criminals used mobile phones." Now Joe Public is starting to hear about encryption, so the news monkeys bandy it about... We are surrounded by imbeciles.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Monday January 25 2016, @07:58AM
Mr Majeed liaised via Skype
And since Microsoft has owned it, skype has be completely backdoored to the NSA. Fully CALEA compliant, any conversation tap-able at a keystroke.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Sunday January 24 2016, @06:00PM
I can't believe that "Mujahideen Secrets" would actually be labeled as such... anyone halfway competent at conceiving of keeping a secret would name the program something like "Enhanced Disk Defragmenter" or "Notepad+".
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Monday January 25 2016, @01:32AM
I would assume it would be a history of the USA finding Muhjahedeen groups in the Cold War.
(Score: 2) by quixote on Monday January 25 2016, @03:19AM
How stupid could you possibly get?
This reeks of heavyhanded secret service attempts at entrapment. It reminds me mainly of that farce some years back when there was some dingdong wandering around Atlanta I think it was in a bathrobe so the FBI arrested him for being a terrorist. I probably have the specifics all wrong, but it was something that idiotic.
If this isn't some Keystone Kops caper, and it really is aspiring terrorists, it's totally stupid to arrest them. Get them promoted as high as they'll go, where they can do the other side more good.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by drussell on Sunday January 24 2016, @06:58PM
Quick! Pass a law to force the authors of all encryption software, including "Mujahideen Secrets" to provide a government backdoor!
I'm sure everyone, worldwide, will comply! Everyone who understands encryption and is capable of modifying one or creating their own will surely follow this edict, and nobody will ever use an "un-approved" encryption system for anything illegal, those darn terrorists won't be able to get their hands on such "un-approved" encryption, etc.
It's so sad that many people even think that's an option... :facepalm: ...groan...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 24 2016, @07:16PM
Its about shaping public perception, getting the public opinion against any methods which would enable dissent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 24 2016, @07:30PM
He turned out to be a radical Muslim terrorist and downloaded Encryption Software!
BAN THE ENCRYPTION SOFTWARE!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Sunday January 24 2016, @07:49PM
Wait, the terrorists use Microsoft Windows? We need to ban that!
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 24 2016, @08:13PM
Microsoft Windows 10, Mujahadin Edition U+00A9 - written by terrorists, for terrorists!
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 25 2016, @02:27AM
If you really want to slow the terrorists down make them use PowerPoint.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Monday January 25 2016, @05:21AM
Wait, the terrorists use Microsoft Windows? We need to ban that!
And Skype! That's TWO microsoft products - are we supposed to believe that's coincidental?
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 25 2016, @06:14AM
No need to ban it. It's a great way to lure the stupid into incriminating themselves.
If they really did use Windows, they probably deserve the sentence they'll get.
(Score: 2) by fnj on Sunday January 24 2016, @08:10PM
In other news, yesterday's bank robbers were accused of stealing a hard candy from the manager's desk, and are known to enjoy rice crispies and watch Saturday morning cartoons.
Bank officials are looking at prohibiting keeping candies on any desktops, and politicians are considering banning rice crispies and Saturday morning cartoons.
Oh, and anyone caught saying anything in public earshot that sounds suspiciously like a coded message (like "I say, old boy, the vultures are circling") will be seized and treated without mercy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 24 2016, @11:53PM
That is new. When they search the place where the twin towers hijackers lived they found junk food and porn. You can tell a lot about a person from their garbage.
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Sunday January 24 2016, @09:21PM
So this is the latest propaganda eh? Not very creative.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Sunday January 24 2016, @10:05PM
No, it's just a factual report about relevant stuff that's come up in a trial which is in the public interest.
When the government starts to point to this software (used in this case by people who were caught before they did anything, despite their use of encryption) and tries to use that to justify banning encryption, then that will be propaganda.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Sunday January 24 2016, @10:39PM
"When the government starts to point to this software (used in this case by people who were caught before they did anything, despite their use of encryption) and tries to use that to justify banning encryption, then that will be propaganda."
Yet another one who tries to pretend shit like that is not going on already in the steady stream of such articles/actual people in government making such legislative proposals as I write this all across the world. The enemies of freedom are everywhere just waiting for their opportunity to stamp it out.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Monday January 25 2016, @08:25AM
I didn't say it wasn't going on. I'm talking about this story and nothing else, which would likely have been reported whatever the prevailing attitude to encryption was. It's pertinent evidence in a public interest criminal trial.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Sunday January 24 2016, @10:14PM
The Old Bailey[*] heard that Mr Majeed liaised via Skype...
...
[*] The Old Bailey [wikipedia.org].
Why not linkify the original text? Or, to save having to follow the link at all, use the footnote to also briefly explain that the Old Bailey is the central criminal court of England and Wales.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday January 25 2016, @12:24AM
Or, to save having to follow the link at all, use the footnote to also briefly explain that the Old Bailey is the central criminal court of England and Wales.
Exactly, adding a link to the Bailey [baileys.com] would have been helpful.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday January 25 2016, @03:38AM
I didn't make that change, but normally I would not linkify quoted text because it would be like wrongly attributing the URL/link choice to whomever published the quoted article.
At best, I will leave out links that are useless, such as those topic/tag links that sources like The New York Times like to use.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 25 2016, @02:47AM
Seriously, you think you can prevent anyone from getting a snippet like that?!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by kadal on Monday January 25 2016, @03:47AM
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2014/08/the_security_of_9.html [schneier.com]
(Score: 2) by juggs on Monday January 25 2016, @06:16AM
Ban everything, make everything illegal. If someone so much as breathes without permission... lock them up and throw away the key.
"Breathing with intent", "Conspiracy to breathe", "Aiding or abetting an unperson in the act of procuring Oxygen".... life sentences the lot of them.
Mathematics, encryption.... "Aiding the enemy, traitor!".....
I thought The Enlightenment was a few centuries back, must have been just a smote in my eye at the time. Who knew. ~sigh~
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 25 2016, @03:36PM
Why the hysteria about encryption, which has legitimate uses, and no mention whatever about guns, which are pretty much single-purpose for shooting things?