Part II of "MetaTerror: The Potential Use of MMORPGs by Terrorists"

By Andrew Cochran

On March 1, I posted "MetaTerror: The Potential Use of MMORPGs by Terrorists," consisting of a guest post by Roderick Jones of Concentric Solutions Int'l, about the potential use of "Second Life" digital 3-D worlds by terrorists. I invited comments to be emailed to Roderick and to me, and several of you responded with interesting comments. Additionally, the post drew attention on TerraNova, the biggest MMORPG blog, and on the Second Life Herald, the SL in-world newspaper. Today, MSNBC published a piece on Second Life on its website. Here are two of the comments, with responses from Roderick. We will continue this converation if we receive quality comments.

David Grundy, Senior Lecturer at Newcastle Business School of Northumbria University in the UK, wrote us, and you'll see Roderick's response to each of Mr. Grundy's paragraphs in italics:

"Having read your very interesting article (which was kindly linked from Terranova) I thought I’d get in touch to contribute. Certainly I think you have struck upon something very worrying, I’ve been looking at the potential for these kind of games to be used for money laundering for a little while now, in particular I was examining the MMO Project Entropia, however you comments regarding Second Life are very similar to what you could do with Project Entropia. After reading your article I had a number of questions, which I hope you don't mind commenting on:

I was wondering if, since most of the quality communication in MMO's was facilitated through VoIP communication tools such as Skype & Ventrillo etc, whether the issues regarding recruitment and message passing are to do with the MMO's themselves or the VoIP tools."

Interestingly SL has developed VoIP that is currently in Beta and from what I have heard is much better than Skype. With regard to VoIP it is the social element of SL that makes it more interesting that other platforms - there is after all the chance to bump into people by coincidence- something that doesn't exist on the web generally. This is one of the big areas where platforms such as SL are ahead of social networking sites such as MySpace.

"Also, though you are concentrating on Second Life, have you branched out yet into other MMO's? Certainly in the largest MMO by far, Warcraft, there has been many instances of "guilds" or social groupings associated by nationality & even religion, there's a very good article by Taylor in Games and Culture Journal on this issue. Certainly, given the size of something like World of Warcraft this potentially has more research potential than Second Life?"

I personally haven't looked at WoW but I have a researcher who is looking at the gold issues. SL is the most 'life-like' and therefore where I concentrate but wider research should examine all the worlds.

"Lastly, there's the issue of armchair theorising, which as an academic, I've occasionally been accused of. Certainly the possibility of terrorists or money launderers using MMO's in this way could exist, however, have you considered the reflexive consequences of you bringing this to light. For example, in the slides I've attached, I've considered, from an academic standpoint, how something could be done, but, by doing this, could I possibly encourage people to money launder in this way? By the same token, by highlighting the possibility of MMO's being used to recruit vulnerable young adults into a cultural paradigm where terrorism is acceptable, are you highlighting possibly to terrorists that this is possible? It's certainly a disturbing thought, which I was wondering if you'd considered?"

Activists and terrorists generally are ahead of society in appreciating the strategic use of the internet generally, and specific platforms specifically. I don't believe myself to be saying anything others wouldn't have already considered. In addition, by highlighting these issues it may prompt the companies involved in developing these platforms to consider mechanisms for examining suspicious money transfer and at least developing relationships with their local FBI office! As a brief reading of the comments this argument attracted on the Terra Nova site - the tech community isn't very good at appreciating risk!

"Again, a very interesting and thought provoking article, and I look forward to reading more in the future. If you have any queries or questions, please don't hesitate to contact me."

A reader named "UJ" also emailed us; here are his complete comments, followed by Roderick's response:

"The prospect of radical fundamentalists being able to plan, finance, train for and launch terror attacks from MetaVerse's such as that offered in SecondLife is very frightening. The ability of the user to generate their own content, communicate with others and even exchange currency without the oversight of our Real World institutions is certainly a gaping vulnerability.

But I also believe it is a vulnerability that is easier to defend than almost any other front in the War on Terror.

For instance, let's examine your scenario of a bomb maker using uploaded training videos and mock 3D targets to plan an attack. Government agencies already in existence are equipped to deal with this scenario.

Just as the extremist group tasks an avatar with using SL to recruit and train, the State Department, Justice Department or even the CIA could task their own avatars with infiltrating such groups. Tools already available shatter the language barrier, and the avatars nullify the need to physically blend with the environment. The likelihood of turning informants would be greatly increased with the ability to anonymously launder money through paypal. An untraceable $5000US just for the name of a particular chat room or user? Not bad. The fact that every packet of data, VoIP, uploaded videos, chat transcripts, paypal transactions, will pass through the ISP, the SecondLife servers, all of those points ensures that there is never lack of a paper trail for later prosecution.

But let's imagine another scenario, one in which all responsible agencies, right down to the network administrators at SecondLife, fails. Bureaucratic red tape, they take a hands off approach, for whatever reason there is no established institution to handle the vulnerabilities. The apparent vulnerabilities in the SecondLife system will actually be our strongest defenses.

In this case I'd point to the historical precedents of other MMORPGs. Games such as Ultima Online and The Sims have their own Shadow Governments set up independently by users, outside the oversight of the network admins or the game publishers. Given the limitations of their respective gaming environments, most of the Shadow Governments remain focused on organizing the anarchy of their online environments, organizing their online crimes into more controlled and profitable racketeering industries. But SecondLife's system allows for much more.

Imagine an Open Source War on Terror, a MetaVerse in which our very own 18 - 34 year-olds log on to infiltrate and incapacitate online fundamentalist adversaries. Just the same as extremists will use flight simulators and mapping applications to train for their operations, our online counter-terrorists will use their own military shooter programs to hone their skills, use their own strategy games to plan their operations, and their own counter-terrorism blogs to stay informed. All outside the same oversight the extremists escape.

If the MetaVerse respects Real World institutions, avatars will be given the same respect, located, tried and dispensed Justice. If the MetaVerse is a Wild West, vigilantes will follow.

As an independent researcher, I would insist it is the responsibility of MetaTerror specialists not only to inform real world agencies of this threat, but also to plan for their failure. In this case, failure has options."

Roderick's response:

The scenario you outline, an Open Source War on Terror, is already happening within Second Life except that is a war between hate groups (the far-right) and activists seeking to stop their growth within the virtual world. The Internet, in general, has been a significant tool for the far right and they were quick to realize the potential of the virtual worlds for meeting, recruitment and propaganda.

“We live in a country where freedom of speech is a deception, for us the Internet is a pure propaganda medium where our message is not distorted”. Romain Letang, Webmaster for the Front National, In "Le Pen is mightier on the net," 2004.

While extreme-right activity was sporadic within Second Life, the arrival of Jean Marie le Pen's Front National within Second Life spurred the creation of opposition groups (and arguably led to a surge in Second Life members from France). The 'war' is currently fought by one side crashing (taking offline) the other's Sims (areas of virtual land) or by the placement of Nazi swastika's or other extreme-right symbols on the virtual land of opposition groups. As well as the French Front National the group 14 Words has entered Second Life building nightclubs and conference centers. These two groups are opposed by activists in Second Life by the Anti-Front National SL.

The language used by the extreme-right groups is real and disturbing. Activity between the opposing groups has included attempts to infiltrate the other group, use of virtual weapons, and mass protest rallies. There are also unverified reports of some real-life attempts by the extreme right to target left-wing activists.

Therefore, your scenario of Open Source War is in a sense already a reality within Second Life, and it is a story you seldom hear told, as it does not fit with the utopian perception.

I also want to make a point about digital forensics and that is that while yes, the digital paper trail can be extensive, and this trail has to be linked to a person. This generally relies on the user of these media being the person they say they are.

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