Security experts from 23 countries gather in Gold Coast to look at ways to hack Facebook and social media

AMID concerns over the privacy and security of social media accounts, the world’s top law-enforcement officers are on the Gold Coast devising new ways of hacking them.

SECURITY experts from 23 nations are on the Gold Coast this week looking at new ways of hacking Facebook and other social media accounts as they wage war on global terror.

The link between social media and terrorists is a key focus of the Asia-Pacific FBI National Academy Associates four-day conference at the Marriott in Surfers Paradise.

It comes in the wake of a Sydney terror arrest in February this year where police alleged the accused had contact with a teen in Britain online, who was also arrested.

In Melbourne last week officers were able to intercept an alleged attack intended for Mother’s Day using online intelligence.

About 300 experts from the FBI, US Homeland Security and police from 23 nations are attending the conference.

Yesterday FBI assistant director John Boles, in a guarded statement, admitted ways of hacking into people’s social media accounts was on the agenda.

“Social media itself is beneficial and dangerous — it’s up to people to use it responsibly,” he said. “We do want to protect user privacy but access to social media in certain situations is imperative to saving lives.”

He said encryption, genuine user privacy and government intelligence were all challenges for security agencies.

“It is a global phenomenon and everyone I meet, whether it be in Europe, Asia or the African continent, is concerned how the internet and social media is being used to radicalise their citizens, and particularly young people, to travel tonight for IS and al-Qaeda,” he said.

Keynote conference sessions this week to be presented by senior FBI agents will focus on how security agencies can monitor computers in the fight against terrorism and international crime, and the use of GPS tracking and Google to build profiles of potential terrorists.

Senior Queensland police refused to say whether undercover officers would be used online here in the fight against terrorism.

But Queensland Deputy Police Commissioner Ross Barnett said the use of social media, the radicalisation of young people and organised crime online was top of the agenda.

Originally published as Security experts from 23 countries gather in Gold Coast to look at ways to hack Facebook and social media