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UN counter-terrorism chief: We must defeat Daesh in cyberspace

February 11, 2021 at 12:12 pm

Under-Secretary for the new United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office, Russian national, Vladimir Ivanovich Voronkov, poses for a photo in Nairobi after presiding over the closing ceremony of the African-Regional High Level Conference on counter-terrorism, on 11 July 2019. [TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images]

The United Nations’ top counter-terrorism official has said that the terror group Daesh must be defeated in cyberspace by countering its ideology online, amid the group’s recent efforts to revive itself.

Speaking in his briefing to the UN Security Council yesterday, the Under-Secretary-General for Counter-Terrorism and head of the Office of Counter-Terrorism, Vladimir Voronkoy, stated: “We must defeat ISIL [Daesh] in the cyberspace.”

Last week, the UN published a report by a panel of experts outlining the increase in terrorism throughout the second half of 2020 that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic facilitated. During that period, it stated, the pandemic and the subsequent limited capabilities of security forces around the world had enabled terrorist groups to step up their operations.

One of those groups detailed in that report was Daesh, which although being militarily and territorially defeated in 2017, has been steadily rebuilding itself and launching attacks in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Austria over the past months.

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Voronkoy pointed out that besides direct militant attacks, Daesh also poses a significant online threat by effectively spreading propaganda and influencing others around the world as they spend more time at home and online during the pandemic, particularly the youth. He predicted that that influence, added to political mistrust and socio-economic issues, “could lead to a sudden rash of attacks in some countries, when COVID19-related movement restrictions ease.”

The counter-terror official pointed out that with this year marking the twentieth anniversary of the UN Security Council’s Resolution 1373 – implemented in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks – “the time could not be more relevant for Member States to recommit themselves to multilateral action against terrorism, under the auspices of the United Nations.”

Voronkoy’s call for tackling Daesh online comes as the group has greatly increased its cyber capabilities over the past year, including through the use of online payment systems. Last September, it was reported that female Daesh suspects escaped detention camps in Syria by paying to be smuggled out using online donations sent by sympathisers.

Terror groups have also spread into the realm of cryptocurrency, with French authorities having arrested dozens of people in a network of financiers using cryptocurrencies to transfer funds to terror groups in Syria.

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