"The thing that keeps me up at night is the guy in front of his monitor, looking for those hate preachers. They communicate through the chat rooms of the PlayStation 4, even more difficult to monitor than WhatsApp. This technology represents the weak link in the fight against terrorism ". This was stated by Jan Jambon, Minister of Internal Affairs of Belgium, during a conference in Brussels.
How to communicate through videogames?
Just buy a copy of Call of Duty (for example), both for PlayStation and for Xbox. Players can access in groups to play against each other and, above all, chat in private. Once logged into a "lobby" and using a password, terrorists wear earphones bluetooth. In this way they speak in a safe way.
Since the 2012, the FBI has compiled a particular list of videogames suspected (precisely because of their popularity) of being used by terrorists to communicate. In addition to Call of Duty, suspected of being targeted by terrorists are there lw series Medal of Honor e Halo. There was also evidence that aspiring jihadists use war games as training tools, much like a pilot can use a flight simulator. The use of video games for training purposes has been a consolidated practice for years in the US military. The "Weapon" series, for example, is used by the US military to train its troops. Even (and this could make a scandal in Italy), in the States, the "recruiters", that is those who visit high schools in search of human material to be included in the armed forces, also evaluate the ability and ability of the individual in video games. The latter, in fact, are very useful for assessing the reaction time of the young individual and his predisposition to direct, for example, an aircraft in the operational area, perhaps above the fire of the anti-aircraft fire and with adverse weather conditions. Just think, for example, that the remotely piloted weapon systems or the terrestrial battle drones are radio-controlled by a pad identical to that of the 360 Xbox: the operator, in this way, wastes no time in adapting to the new system driving and control because it is the same one used when playing on the couch at home.
The very high level of realism produced in the latest-generation videogames, therefore, represents a good test for both good and bad guys. The 11 September terrorists refined their flight skills thanks to the well-known Microsoft flight simulator, the Flight Simulator (a version of the latter is used by numerous aeronautics, including the Italian one, as a procedural trainer). Finally, the videogame theaters recreated for the consoles or for the PCs, now boast authoritative collaborations. Medal of honor, released in the 2010, was created in collaboration with real Tier-1 operators.
Curious behind-the-scenes on a game from EA Los Angeles. It achieved good public and sales success, but users complained about a poor single campaign: it was discovered shortly after the game was becoming a real Tier-1 documentary, with real tactics and weapons faithfully reproduced, reason so it was decided to reduce the single player campaign.
