It turns out Sony's popular game console, the Playstation 4, is not only for fun and games.
Security experts have issued a warning on how the Sony Playstation may have been tapped by the Islamic State (ISIS) and other terrorist networks to communicate and plan their attacks.
At a press conference organised by Politico, Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon warned that the terrorists may be using the Playstation 4 as a communication tool because it is difficult, if not impossible, for intelligence experts to track encrypted messages passed using the game console.
"The most difficult communication between these terrorists is via PlayStation 4. It's very, very difficult for our services — not only Belgian services but international services — to decrypt the communication that is done via PlayStation 4," Jambon said, as quoted by Fox News.
Paul Martini, CEO of cyber security specialist iboss Cybersecurity, agreed in a separate statement that the Playstation 4 poses a challenge to intelligence agencies due to the fact that it uses a language very difficult to the one used on the Internet and other softwares.
"They are typically encrypted communication channels that are built on custom-designed languages built for speed and security—since PlayStation involves multi-player Internet connected users, it's very distributed, high speed and difficult to track and monitor," Martini explained to Fox News.
"There is no doubt that terrorists and other underground networks are using PlayStation and other non-traditional means to communicate with each other," he added.
Ebba Blitz, president of encryption-as-a-service company Alertsec, for his part said terrorist networks like the ISIS may even be communicating within Sony Playstation 4 games.
"ISIS could use PlayStation to communicate with each other undetected, using the shooting of video game bullets to form messages," Blitz said.
"That's because as far as we know, there are no automated detection systems sophisticated enough to intercept or monitor messages that are concealed as images or patterns in video games," he added.
These warnings about the Sony Playstation 4 being harnessed by terrorist organisations as a communication tool came a few days before the attacks on a stadium, a concert hall and restaurants in Paris, which left over 120 people dead.
