Terrorist organisations are using technology for radicalisation and capitalising on emerging digital avenues such as the dark net, metaverse and cryptocurrency platforms, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 3, while seeking global cooperation to deal with cybercrimes.
In an interview, the PM said that the World Bank has estimated that cyber attacks could have caused losses of around $5.2 trillion to the world during 2019-2023, but their impact goes beyond just financial aspects into activities that can have social and geopolitical implications. He added cyberspace has introduced an entirely new dimension to the battle against illicit financial activities and terrorism.
“Terrorist organisations are using technology for radicalisation, moving money from money laundering and drugs into terror funding, and capitalising on emerging digital avenues such as the dark net, metaverse, and cryptocurrency platforms to fulfil their nefarious aims,” the Prime Minister said.
In case of news, PM Modi said that the spread of ‘deep fakes’ can cause chaos and loss of credibility of news sources. He said fake news and ‘deep fakes’ can be used to fuel social unrest.
The Prime Minister noted that India hosted a G20 Conference on Crime and Security in the Age of NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), Artificial Intelligence and Metaverse in July in Gurugram. During this conference, concern was expressed over malicious cyber activities contrary to established norms, principles and rules of cyberspace and international law.