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Reality check: Terrorists using Twitter?

29.10.2008
A U.S. Army intelligence report sent the media into overdrive the last few days with its pronouncement that their way through an attack using the microblogging site Twitter. The Army says it "red-teamed" the possible use of Twitter, which means that a team of soldiers or analysts used Twitter to see if they could find weaknesses with the Army's battle readiness. But is a Twitter attack realistic? Should we be Twitterified of Twitter? Let's take a closer look.

The report outlines three possible uses for Twitter as a terrorist tool. They are:

          1. Sending and receiving messages to and from other terrorist cell members.

          2. Detonating a roadside bomb.

          3. Following a soldier's Tweets.

Let's look at each of these threats individually. First, it's definitely possible that terrorists could send and receive messages using Twitter. But couldn't they also simply text each other directly? This may not be as easy as Tweeting each other, but it's still doable.