EU looks to Israeli tech to battle terrorists

A top European Union security official says the body is looking to Israeli technology in its efforts to locate so-called lone wolf terrorists before they attack.

“How do you capture some signs of someone who has no contact with any organization, is just inspired and started expressing some kind of allegiance? I don’t know. It’s a challenge,” EU Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove tells Reuters during an conference on intelligence in Tel Aviv.

He says that internet companies had proved reluctant to police their own systems for content that could indicate terrorist activity, arguing that there was too much information to process, and highlights the difference to the automated monitors for pornography involving children.

“So maybe a human’s intervention is needed. So you cannot just let the machine do it,” De Kerchove says.

“That is why I am here,” he adds. “We know Israel has developed a lot of capability in cyber.”

Europe is reeling from a string of attacks that have killed hundreds of people. At least two of the attacks — in Copenhagen in February 2015 and in Nice last week — were carried out by one person apparently acting alone.