Cyberterrorism
Introduction
Cyber terrorism is the use of the internet to intimate or coerce the civilian population with political or social objectives. Cyberterrorism is an issue of concern in the modern world since individuals and terrorists’ organizations are using the internet to cause physical threats. It is important to note that due to the proliferation of advancing tactical techniques and technology such as the Internet of Things, there is an increase of networking group that are using these computer systems to cause cyber terrorists to attack. This is an issue that requires protective security measures to undermine cyber capabilities and prevent physical damage. Cyberterrorism is causing massive loss of life and environmental damage. Recent research and studies have shown that the existing terrorists’ organization will use the advantaged Internet technology to complete their mission. Thus, it is predicted that due to the use of computer and Internet technology, it will be difficult to detect and defend attacks. Thus, it is high time to come up with security measures to prevent cyber terrorism. The Internet has created cyberspace where terrorists exchange information to cause physical threats to individuals, organizations and national as a whole with economic and political motivations.
Chen, Jarvis & Macdonald, (2014) asserts that in the United Kingdom, cyber-attacks by terrorists cause higher risk. Cyber-terrorists target areas like nuclear power stations, government organizations, and military organizations, among other organizations using the Internet and computer technology (Chen, Jarvis & Macdonald, 2014). Thus, the issue requires national security legislators to pay attention to cybersecurity issues. It should develop cyber policies to protect state networks and secure the homeland. The author adds that political hacktivists are using the websites of the government to protests political issues. Thus, the threat of cyberterrorism is brought by terrorists' organizations and the hacktivists and both have a common motivate which is a political motive (Chen, Jarvis & Macdonald, 2014). The term cyber-attack is ambiguous since some terrorists group uses conventional military offensives, others use computer technology to steal sensitive national security, and others use computer technology to derive bank account details (Chen, Jarvis & Macdonald, 2014).The author examines the cyber-attacks that quality as cyber-terrorist and in conducting the research, he finds that the Commonwealth nations have a common definition of cyberterrorism since they assert that cyberterrorism is as an act that uses the electronic system to intimidate the public and causes a serious damage to the public and property with political or religious motive.
Focusing on of cyberterrorism, Chen, Jarvis & Macdonald, (2014) assert the term was invented in the 1980s but after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the security professionals paid attention to the cybersecurity threats and found different types of risks such as cyber-warfare, cyber-crime, and cyberterrorism among other cyber threats. During this period, there was a high growth of the Internet and this made the security experts predict that the terrorist groups would use the Internet to cause more damage (Chen, Jarvis & Macdonald, 2014). Since this period, the term cyberterrorism is widely used and scholars find that terrorists are using the Internet and computer technology such as web mapping programmer to conduct an attack. It is also important to understand that cyberterrorism is a contingent decision where the terrorists have political interest and agendas toward causing political violence (Chen, Jarvis & Macdonald, 2014). Blakemore (2016) adds that cyberspace is the environment for all human interaction and online activities including cyberterrorism, and cybercrime. In other words, cyberspace is a World Wide Web where communication and information sharing takes place. However, the cyberspace is changing not only in communication and information but also how people interact with each other (Blakemore, 2016). Today, everyone can access the cyberspace and create an application without sanction. Users are also enjoying low cost and convenience and this indicates that in the future, people will rely on the technology in real life.
Today, cyberterrorism a serious crime and the activity will rise given that various cyberterrorism activities go unreported and this makes it difficult to measure the cybercrime. The police are unable to gather accurate data due to the fact that the victims fail to report the matter to the police and they end up reporting to the providing company (Blakemore, 2016). The victims do not understand to whom they should report the incidence. Another challenge is that the security forces are unable to investigate all the reported cases and the problems end up being underestimated. It is also important to understand that cyberterrorism is widespread in that terrorists use global communication systems and this makes it difficult to detect cyberterrorists (Blakemore, 2016). For example, in 2007 and 2008, there were £53 billion online fraud worldwide and 3.6million criminal acts respectively. Note that these the cybercrime activities are underreported and the figures are just a tip of the iceberg. The world spends almost one trillion dollars annuals in cybercrime and UK alone spends £27bn annually (Blakemore, 2016). Moslemzadeh & Tehrani, (2017) adds that due to the growth of Information technology, terrorist are able to access and use deadly weapons and technology. For this reason, the public need to be safeguarded to avoid the devastating consequences brought by cyberterrorism (Moslemzadeh & Tehrani, 2017). Cyber terrorists have changed their methods in that in the past, the hackers had ‘hacker's ethics' which restricted them from sharing information and causing harm to the data. However, due to the new technology, cyberterrorism is a serious crime since the terrorists have advanced their political agenda and are causing a great national and international threat (Moslemzadeh & Tehrani, 2017). Cyber-terrorist no longer uses intelligence-tracking methods but they use Brute Force and Netbots to conduct the attack.
Responses to cyber terrorism
Recent studies and researches have realized that terrorists use science and technology to conduct cyberterrorism. Thus, science and technology approaches should be implemented to counter-terrorism and destroy new terrorist activities. Almost all organizations including military organizations, government organizations, and industries, among others face the threat of cyber terrorists (Janczewski & Colarik, 2008) Company defense will not be the best approach to prevent cyberterrorism but rather, a wider cooperation is of great importance. First, there should be a cooperation of group organization such as Internet service providers. The group would work together in controlling the Internet system and eliminate wider system responses. Second, there should be coordination between national and international law. The coordination should restrict hacking and come up with global security arrangements (Janczewski & Colarik, 2008). All countries worldwide should combine efforts and come up with initiatives toward maintaining information technology security.
Conclusion
The research has discussed the issue of cyberterrorism- the act of using Internet technology with political or economic ideologies to cause intimidation and significant damage to individual, public or environment. Terrorists are individual actors or group where the participants focus on targets and use modern techniques to cause a physical attack. The research paper has reported that to reduce cyberterrorism threats, the Internet service providers and the national and international security organizations should combine efforts to hide computer systems and develop laws concerning criminal sanction.
References
Blakemore Brian. (2016). Policing Cyber Hate, Cyber Threats and Cyber Terrorism. Routledge
In Chen, T. M., In Jarvis, L., & In Macdonald, S. (2014). Cyberterrorism: Understanding,
Assessment, and response. Springer
In Janczewski, L., & In Colarik, A. M. (2008). Cyber warfare and cyber terrorism. Idea Group
Inc
Moslemzadeh P. Tehrani. (2017). Cyberterrorism: The Legal And Enforcement Issues. World
Scientific
