Romania contributes to Europol takedown of IS internet propaganda

Romania contributed to Europol-coordinated multinational takedown of Islamic State (IS) internet propaganda, that took place on 25-26 April. Takedown operation was coordinated by the European Union Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU) within the European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC) at the Europol headquarters - European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) announced on Friday, 27 April.

BBC reports that cyber specialists from several EU countries, Canada and the United States targeted online sites, including Amaq News Agency, seen as the main IS mouthpiece.

On 25-26 April 2018, a simultaneous multinational takedown, coordinated by Europol’s EU IRU (Internet Referral Unit) and with the support of Eurojust and the Belgian Federal Prosecutor, led to the seizure of digital evidence by law enforcement from Bulgaria (Cybercrime Department in General Directorate Combatting Organised Crime), France (SDAT-SDLC), Romania (Directorate for Countering Organised Criminality – Terrorism Investigation Unit with the support of the Romanian Intelligence Service), and the seizure of IS servers in the Netherlands (Dutch National Police – Internet Referral Unit together with the Belgian Federal Judicial Police – East-Flanders), Canada and the USA. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom (Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit) took the lead in the referral process of top-level domain registrars abused by IS.

With this takedown action, targeting major IS-branded media outlets like Amaq, but also al-Bayan radio, Halumu and Nashir news, IS's capability to broadcast and publicise terrorist material has been compromised.

Law enforcement agencies involved expect that the data retrieved as a result of the takedown will help to identify the administrators behind IS media outlets and potentially radicalised individuals on European soil and beyond.

Source:RRA,BBC,Europol