Terrorist groups, their “ideological fellow-travellers” and “lone wolf” attackers have significantly enhanced capabilities by gaining access to the new technologies – S Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister

Picture : Twitter/ ANI

India on Saturday pitched for concerted global efforts to stop possible misuse of new technologies such as encrypted messaging and crypto-currency by “non-state actors”, and cautioned that the social media platforms have turned into potent instruments in the “toolkit” of terror groups.

As per ANI report, In an address at a special meeting of the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said terrorist groups, their “ideological fellow-travellers” and “lone wolf” attackers have significantly enhanced capabilities by gaining access to the new technologies.

He also said the counter-terror sanction regime of the United Nations has been effective to put countries on notice that turned terrorism into a “state-funded enterprise”, seen as an apparent reference to Pakistan.

Representatives from all 15 member nations of the UN Security Council are attending the second day’s meeting that is taking place in Delhi. The first day’s events were held in Mumbai.

Reaffirming India’s commitment to combat terrorism, the external affairs minister also announced that New Delhi would make a voluntary contribution of half a million dollars in the UN Trust Fund for Counter-Terrorism this year.

In his remarks, Jaishankar said the technological innovations of the past two decades have been transformative in the way the world functions and the new and emerging technologies — from virtual private networks, and encrypted messaging services to blockchain and virtual currencies — are offering a very promising future for a wide array of economic and social benefits.

However, he said there is a flip side to it, especially where terrorism is concerned.

“These very technologies have also thrown up new challenges for the governments and regulatory bodies due to their potential vulnerability for misuse by non-state actors, given the very nature of some of these technologies and the nascent regulatory environment,” Jaishankar said.

“In recent years, terrorist groups, their ideological fellow-travellers, particularly in open and liberal societies and ‘lone wolf’ attackers have significantly enhanced their capabilities by gaining access to these technologies,” he added.