In an analysis on the Counter-Terrorism Blog, former British Special Branch policeman Roderick Jones and innovation expert Michael Schrage, who advises the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, note that terror groups tend to be "early adopters of new technologies -- especially if they're cheap and easy to acquire."

Provocatively, the two argue that such technologies might eventually eliminate the need for terrorist training camps altogether.

"Geographically dispersed terrorist groups could easily come together to learn the complex technical tradecraft of terror, such as bomb making … within a virtual environment."

Such virtual worlds could be built using commercial software, and be housed on botnets -- networks of compromised personal computers that, all unbeknownst to their owners, are controlled by hackers.

"Untraceably cheap and disposable 'just-in-time' virtual worlds that fuse the benefits of virtual worlds like Second Life with the criminal effectiveness of zombie bot-nets are inevitable," argue the two authors.

"The barriers to creating such a world are being constantly reduced as companies are beginning to provide the tools for creating DIY worlds. Virtual worlds require a relatively small software interface, which sits over a number of dispersed servers that host the world. Bot-nets could act as temporary servers."