International terrorists are creating "cyber units" tasked with provoking technogenic and environmental disasters using hacker attacks, Army General Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and chairman of the National Antiterrorist Committee, said on Wednesday.
"According to our data, terrorists expand their ties in the hacker community, and organize their own 'cyber units'. The level of technical sophistication involved in their cyberattacks is constantly growing," Bortnikov said during the XVI meeting of the heads of special services in Krasnodar.
"We estimate that it's highly probably international terrorist organizations will redirect the vector of their cyberattacks from state information resources to the sites of vital and critical infrastructure in order to provoke technogenic and environmental disasters," the FSB head said.
Terrorists in Syria, Iraq Trained to Produce Homemade Chemical Weapons
Meanwhile, some of the terrorists who fought in Syria and Iraq were trained in the manufacturing and the combat use of components of chemical weapons, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov said.
"Separately, I would like to note that some of the terrorists who fought in Syria and Iraq acquired the skills of handicraft production and the use of components of chemical weapons," Bortnikov said.
The FSB chief added that this fact was proved by the criminal cases investigated in Russia.
Daesh Terrorists Use Foothold in Afghanistan to Get Into Russia
Fighters of Daesh terrorist group (ISIS/ISIL/IS/Islamic State), outlawed in Russia, are using their foothold in Afghanistan for making their way into Russia, China, Iran, India and other countries in Central Asia, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov said.
"The bandits are most actively moving [from Syria and Iraq] to the territory of Afghanistan, where Daesh positions have already been established, from where they receive the opportunity to infiltrate into Central Asia, Iran, China and India. Using the Afghan foothold, the terrorists are also attempting to carry out attacks against Russia," Bortnikov said at a meeting of Russia's special services chiefs in the city of Krasnodar.
"The gang leaders established strong ties with major ethnic organized criminal groups, which supply them with arms, documents necessary for legalization, and support them in other ways," the FSB director said, adding that "the leaders of international terrorist structures are broadly using migration flows to achieve their goals, which makes it possible for militants and terrorists to enter target countries under the disguise of refugees or labor migrants with the borders being fully or partially open."
According to Bortnikov, international terrorist groups have given up the idea of establishing a caliphate in Syria and Iraq in the face of a total defeat, and set the new goal of creating a global terror network.
"Having been virtually defeated in establishing a caliphate on the territory of Syria and Iraq, the leaders of Daesh and international terror organizations that joined it set a new global goal of creating a worldwide terror network," the security official said.
