Indian investigation agency reveals digital terror funding |
The National Investigation Agency has claimed in the charge sheet filed last month that Islamic State operative Jahanzaib Sami had arranged a Bitcoin wallet address, through a British contact. Sami had asked associates to deposit funds. This is the first documented allegation of the use of cryptocurrency in terror activity in India. Sami, and his wife Hina Bashir were arrested in Delhi on March 8 for allegedly planning to carry out attacks in India. The charge sheet mentions that they had received the Bitcoin address on Threema, an instant messaging app, from an account called Caged Pearls, which belongs to a British woman based in Syria. He also got in touch with a Libya-based IS operative who possessed an ID `Sech Tech`, to discuss arranging funds through “blockchain technology”. Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoins leverage a technology known as the blockchain, a decentralised, distributed ledger that tracks transactions. These are anonymous and nearly impossible to track, and are commonly used in dark web transactions. The charge sheet said Sami had also discussed the possibility of using this to source weapons and explosives raw material. The increasing use of cryptocurrency by terror organisations like IS and Al-Qaeda to fund their activities has worried security and intelligence communities across the world. Defense experts believe that this may be the first time any terror activity in India has been linked to Bitcoins.
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