Terrorists using Internet for Money Laundering, Fundraising…and Identity Theft

by Aleshia Altizer

How serious would you be about protecting your identity if you knew terrorists were on the prowl, seeking to use fraudulent funds to finance activities? Discovery.com has posted a Q&A with Tom Kellermann, a former member of the Treasury Security Team at the World Bank. Kellermann advised central banks on monitoring illicit online activity and had some startling things to say about how terrorists are funding their attacks.

In the article, Kellerman discusses how one terrorist funded an attack with more than $150,000 he hacked from American bank accounts and credit lines. On top of that, he wrote a book on hacking to educate his followers.

Terrorists don’t have to be hackers themselves to get their hands on stolen data either. They can hire assistance from underground chat rooms. “There is a complete community now where you essentially can hire mercenaries to build code to attack a targeted system and to data mine that system for your own use,” said Kellerman.

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Aleshia Altizer is a Corporate Writer at Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. Pre-Paid Legal's signature products, including the Life Events Legal Plan and Identity Theft Shield, serve more than 1.5 million families in North America.