- Islamic terror groups may utilize financial technology to avoid Western efforts to eliminate their online donations.
- NFT offers terrorists in line with their flexibility on the blockchain.
A normal digital card applauding Islamist militants for a strike on a Taliban position in Afghanistan last month is the first known NFT produced and spread by a terrorist supporter, as per the ex-senior United States intelligence officials.
It is a hint that Islamic State and other terror groups may be getting ready to utilize the growing financial technology to avoid Western efforts to eliminate their online fundraising and messaging, they explained.
The Non-Fungible Token seen on a minimum of one NFT trading website and entitled “IS-NEWS #01” carries Islamic State’s symbol. It was made by a promoter of the group, probably as a test of a new surpass and funding strategy for ISIS, the ex-official admitted. Regulators and national-security officials have shown worries about the capability of terrorists to attack new financial technologies and markets, adding NFTs.
“It was just a matter of time,” claimed Yaya Fanusie, an ex-economic, and counterterrorism analyst.
The IS-NEWS#01
An NFT is a part of data kept on a blockchain, a database of transactions arranged without any requirement of a central trusted authority. The technology initially developed as a method of tracking, valuing, and trading virtual assets, but manufacturers say that it has much wider usage, like digital concert tickets and branded archives such as digital trading cards.
IS-NEWS#01 does not seem to have been traded. Still, its presence on the blockchain, issued over numerous systems linked to the internet, makes it almost impossible for the Justice Department and more law-implementation authorities to wipe it off the internet, dismissal, say, a piece of news issued that stays on a general website checked by a host.
Strategists who have examined the IS-NEWS #01NFT say it is probably an attempt by an Islamic State backer to check if authorities can be bypassed and if law NFT marketplaces will remove the content or restrict its access.
The IS-NEWS#01NFT, along with two more from that very creator, are not presently proposed for sale on NFT marketplace Rarible or different platforms. However, the terrorist community could simply fund their functions by sales of NFTs, strategists said.