Director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov said that terrorist can disguise their hacking attacks under the actions of special services of specific States and this threatened to political and military conflicts. He stated this at the XVIII international meeting of heads of intelligence, security and law enforcement agencies in Sochi.
According to the FSB, terrorist groups create and develop their own cyber units.
Bortnikov called on intelligence agencies of other countries to support Russia's demand to deposit encryption keys for mobile devices. Fighting terrorism is ineffective as long as they use closed channels of communication on the Internet, he explained.
"The main tool of communication between bandits are still Internet Messengers with high crypto protection. In this regard, we consider it a serious problem that a number of the world's leading IT companies do not want to cooperate with intelligence agencies in the field of information security,” Bortnikov said.
He also called on the special services to join efforts in identifying and blocking terrorist and extremist materials on the Internet and to establish cooperation with leading technology companies for this purpose.
Bortnikov also noted that the capabilities of terrorists in the future can grow due to the growing availability of artificial intelligence technologies. And with their help, the militants will be able to analyze large amounts of information, including illegally obtained databases.
In addition, the FSB Director said that international terrorists are increasingly using "confidential cryptocurrencies" to financially fuel their criminal activities. According to Bortnikov, terrorists create shell companies that legally participate in trading on stock exchanges, invest in real estate and various sectors of the economy. At the same time, criminals are increasingly using not bitcoin, but so-called “confidential cryptocurrencies”, which guarantee the anonymity of transactions.
Also, Alexander Bortnikov said about the threat of massive terrorist attacks using unmanned aerial vehicles. According to Bortnikov, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles capable of delivering various cargoes by terrorists will become a "real challenge" for the world's intelligence services.
It is important to add that this year the FSB has identified 39 terrorist attacks in preparation and eliminated 32 terrorists.
