Salafism research expert shares... Here is ISIS's messaging app

With the development of technology and the rise of social networks, personal data security has become critically important. User demands to prevent their data from being captured by malicious individuals and groups, as well as governments, have led to the development of new applications. Such applications can also serve as tools for terrorist organizations to conduct their activities hidden from security forces.

The terrorist organization ISIS also follows technology very closely to evade intelligence agencies and security forces. It was reported in the media that ISIS organized the recent attack on a concert hall in Moscow, the capital of Russia, which resulted in the death of 137 people, via the application called Telegram.

Having had its methods exposed, ISIS is now following new applications to continue its terrorist activities. The group has now advised its members to use the messaging application called Session.

ISIS's new application recommendation was shared on social media by Prof. Dr. Hilmi Demir, an expert on Radicalization, Religious Politics, and Salafism Studies. Quoting a post by the account Geopolog, which tracks ISIS activities, Demir wrote, "ISIS wants its members to use the Session application for end-to-end communication."

Geopolog wrote the following about ISIS's new messaging tool:

"The ISIS I'lam Foundation introduced the Session application to communicate via the Electronic Horizons Foundation. There are tons of apps on the market, but Session is an open-source, end-to-end encrypted app that minimizes metadata, and that is likely why they prefer it. They also seem to be monitoring it."

THE APP THAT DOES NOT GIVE AWAY THE USER

In an article where security researcher Miklos Zoltan reviewed Session for Privacy Affairs, he stated that the application does not store user data.

Zoltan wrote the following about the Session application:

"Communication is conducted using the Signal Protocol on a decentralized network. In this network, servers cannot track where messages originally came from, where they are sent, or the IP address of who sent the messages in the first place – which makes the platform very interesting for secure communication.

The biggest differences between Session and other messaging apps are its security features and its focus on protecting end-users.

It is designed so that the user's identity is routed through different locations and even the end-user IP is hidden from Session servers, making it technically very difficult to trace connections back.

Session IDs make it possible to create an account without an email or phone number. Information is stored on a decentralized platform; the user can only recover their ID using a recovery phrase.

Session does not store any metadata on behalf of chats, does not reveal the user's IP address to other users or servers storing the data – and so far, it has not disclosed such information to governments or judicial authorities."

FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT MADE IN OCTOBER

ISIS had also announced its switch to Session via its Telegram accounts. The following statements were included in a report published on October 6, 2023, on the cyber-terrorism and jihad research site Memri.org:

"On October 4, 2023, a pro-ISIS Telegram channel announced the creation of new pro-ISIS messaging groups on the encrypted messaging app Session and provided a link to an existing group. The post called on supporters to share news of the new groups and encourage others to use the Session app."