Threema mobile app widely used by ISIS handlers across the world

Further, Tutanota, an end-to-end encrypted email software, developed by a German-based company, is also used by ISIS operatives widely.
Image used for representational purposes only.
Image used for representational purposes only.

HYDERABAD:  On account of the increased surveillance carried out by Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA) on ISIS activities, the latter’s handlers and online recruiters operating from across the globe have been continuously jumping their communication channels.

Initially, they handled their communications via Whatsapp, Instagram and Telegram; however, recently, they have been directing their followers to use the Threema mobile app. ​

According to the online recruiters of ISIS, Threema is one of the most safest of all mobile applications. Meanwhile, Hyderabad youths Abdullah Basith and Mohd Abdul Qadeer, who were arrested by the NIA in August 2018, had also used Threema app to be in touch with their handlers, found investigators. 

Further, Tutanota, an end-to-end encrypted email software, developed by a German-based company, is also used by ISIS operatives widely. It has been advised to be the safest tool for communication via email. 
In recent investigations into various cases where ISIS sympathisers were arrested across the country, investigators found ISIS handlers were also using other apps like TextNow, D-Vasive, Data Wipe. 

The members who were a part of the terror module ‘Harkat-ul-Harb-e-Islam’, busted by National Investigation Agency in December 2018 in a joint operation with Anti-Terror Squad of the Uttar Pradesh police and the special cell of the Delhi Police, also used Threema app to communicate among themselves. 

Militants, who targeted Holey Artisan Bakery at Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2016, where 22 civilians, 5 terrorists and two police officials were killed, also used Threema to hide their digital footprint. Threema, with its end-to-end encryption, deletes messages from servers, leaving little trace and preserving anonymity.

The application, founded in 2012, has now become one of the most popular apps in Germany. However it’s fame spread across the globe in 2013, after the Snowden leaks.

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