Terrorists Possibly Using PS4 to Communicate

Authorities are wondering how the recent Paris ISIS attacks had happened and how it was planned. Many believe it may have involved one of the most popular gaming consoles in the world, the Sony Playstation 4.

As of October 28, 2015 there have been 25 million PS4 units sold.

Belgian federal home minister Jan Jambon suspects that ISIS uses the PS4 to communicate. One of the reasons it was selected, was because it is hard to monitor.

Many of people were concerned that the newer video game consoles would be too light on privacy meaning that others can easily identify who you are and also identify other security information about you, like your credit card number.

A document leaked by Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed that the National Security Agency may have embedded themselves into the popular online game World of Warcraft to infiltrate virtual terrorists meetups.

Terrorists could simply be in a Playstation Network party, chatting without regulation. It has remained fairly unclear how much access the government has or had in previous game consoles and game consoles today. Technology has drastically improved within the last five years, so terrorists can possibly use this to their advantage.

However, the prime minister of Belgium said, “It’s very very difficult for our services- not only Belgian services to decrypt the communication that is done via PS4.”

Sony hasn’t had the strongest reputation for security. A hack of the PSN, which is the Playstation Network, in 2011 saw 77 million users affected by personal data theft. A hack also happened in December last year that saw many personal details of celebrities and other public figures leaked.

It has been speculated that messages are drawn out within games in creative ways, such as firing patterns of bullets at a wall. This would make any monitoring by text- filtering impossible.

At this stage however, there is very little evidence. As security researcher Graham Clutley wrote that anything that allows two people to exchange messages could potentially be used by terrorists to communicate.

Apps on the Playstation 4 may also be the way Terrorists communicate. Mainly encrypted messaging apps could be the cause. Apple has already made encryption technology with the iMessage service.

There was also a rumor that a young 14 year old boy from Austria was arrested after downloading bomb-making plans onto his Playstation, and making contact with ISIS sympathizers online. The download was not private and the boy was sentenced to two years in jail.

Sadly, the most popular gaming device may be the most effective at connecting to not just friends across the world, but also the world’s biggest threats.