Russia calls for global coordination to counter cyber terrorist activity

Security services worldwide must coordinate their efforts in cyberspace to prevent the Internet from becoming a weapon for terrorists, Russian Federal Security Service chief Alexander Bortnikov said Wednesday.

"Internet, in effect, is becoming a principal tool of the formation of ultra-radical ideology," Interfax news agency quoted Bortnikov as saying at the international security conference.

The meeting in the central Russian city of Yaroslavl gathered 92 security services delegations from 64 countries and four international and regional organizations, namely the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the European Union and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

According to Bortnikov, terrorist groups maintain their websites in over 40 languages, using the most advanced information technologies to reach their potential audience.

He called on the colleagues to establish efficient cooperation to counter cyber threats, shut down extremist websites and disintegrate the terrorists groups including the Islamic State through every possible approach.

Bortnikov suggested the colleagues preact to prevent young people from joining radical groups, whose ideology "contradicts not only the norms of Islam but also the common humankind values."

In his address to the conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out that tensions in the Middle East and northern Africa could be used by transnational criminals and international terrorists to destabilize the situation in other countries.

Putin called on the conference to work systematically in accord with international laws to eradicate terrorist threats. Endi