The Government’s Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity has released a report that attempts to suggest that online anonymity in 3D worlds leads to terrorism. An article in the Washington Post says, “U.S. intelligence officials are cautioning that popular Internet services that enable computer users to adopt cartoon-like personas in three-dimensional online spaces also are creating security vulnerabilities by opening novel ways for terrorists and criminals to move money, organize and conduct corporate espionage.”

The reports says “Unfortunately, what started out as a benign environment where people would congregate to share information or explore fantasy worlds is now offering the opportunity for religious/political extremists to recruit, rehearse, transfer money, and ultimately engage in information warfare or worse with impunity.” Pinning these attributes on “virtual worlds” is simply unfair. SecondLife just puts a pretty wrapper on things that were already available on the Internet for several years.

However the report just seems to be one long scare tactic already debunked by at least one government official:

“One intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had no evidence of activity by terrorist cells or widespread organized crime in virtual worlds.”

The EFF hasn’t taken too kindly to the report and the Government’s stance here.

Instead of providing useful insight into the nature of security in a networked world, the IARPA paper only serves to emphasize the US federal intelligence complex’s pervasive belief that it’s both possible and desirable to implement pantopticon-style “total information awareness”. In these agencies’ view, any unmonitored communication is a potential crime

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