Editor
The former US President Barack Obama once said, “It is the great irony of our information age – the very technologies that empower us to create and to build, also empower those who would seek to disrupt and destroy.” This is evident from the misguided youths of our state who are falling prey to anti-social activities and the weaponisation of social media is here; school dropouts are set to spiral out of control in the near future, the young and amateur are bound to spread their propaganda and their hateful ideology thus becoming easy targets to be lured for recruitment, couriers moving money online and the lack of oversight can create ripples of danger. A multi-pronged approach through the creation of a fusion centre within the Home Department focusing on analysis, sharing information for operational planning from physical to virtual domains in a time-bound manner is needed.
Malcolm Nance’s Hacking ISIS (How to Destroy the Cyber Jihad) does outline the importance of think tanks in counterintelligence to counter-recruitment. The latest idea of floating a think tank in Meghalaya is laudable but this requires professionals similar to Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses or Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research to craft a model to prevent crime.
Christopher Gatphoh, Shillong