Cyber Espionage And Cyber Terrorism

Cyber Terrorism is an attack executed by Cyber Terrorists via information systems to significantly interfere with the political, social or economic functioning of a groups or organizations of a nation or induces physical violence and creates panic. We define hackers as individuals who wish to access, modify data, files and resources without having the necessary authorization to do so, and/or wish to block services to authorized users. Cyber Terrorists are individuals or groups to utilize computer and networking technologies to terrorize. In this paper, we study the behavior of two groups of hackers: Cyber Terrorists and Common Hackers. Cyber Terrorism and Cyber Terrorists is generally considered classified information which cannot be released to the public, we can usually only interfere that Cyber Terrorism and Cyber Terrorists exits. However in 2010 federal bureau of investigation chief, Robert Mueller, told an RSA conference of computer security professionals, “The Cyber Terrorism threat is real and rapidly expanding”. He indicated that terrorists have shown a clear interest in hacking skills and combining real attacks with Cyber-attacks. [8]

Cyberterrorism is a critical threat and is the most definitive characteristic of the U.S. contemporary security environment. For years, the American people have been victimized by cyber-attacks by having their personal information, emails, credit card, and banking information stolen by an invisible enemy named cyberterrorism. These types of attacks seem insignificant however; they are small examples of the vulnerabilities that our cyber world is experiencing. Our vulnerabilities are leaving our public officials in significant danger from cyber-attacks, as they are vulnerable to such things as the release of personal information and home addresses.

Tomorrow’s terrorist may be able to do more damage with a keyboard than with a bomb (National Research Council1). The United States Department of States defined terrorism as: “…premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents.” Terrorism not only occurs on the real life today but also on the internet. As the technology rapidly developed, there is an increase in the usage of internet, the threat comes along the way. Due to the occurrence of internet terrorism-generating fears to the public, the term “Cyberterrorism” was coined by Barry Collin in the 1980’s (Cyberterrorism Defined). The definition of cyberterrorism differs from various legal systems and government

Moreover, many organizations within the public and private sector heavily relies on technology to carry out their day to day operations. Those cyber technologies help make many difficult or tedious tasks easier to do and technology can also carry out many of those tasks more effectively and efficiently than humans can. However, cyber technologies are at risk of espionage, cyber attacks, or other crimes such as theft and fraud (Ammori & Poellet, 2010).

This paper proposes a policy directed examination on cyber threat, its scope and its impact on national security. It includes a profile of cooperation among criminals, terrorists and hostile organizations and discusses future of cybercrime in 2020. In recent years, “Information warfare” a new way of terrorism has become the major concern for information security specialists; terrorists might tamper with computers and electronic devices to commit secured information based threats to nations, to businesses and to individuals.

Cyberterrorist attacks can be threats, intimidation or even a violent act for personal gain, whereas a hacktivist will use less threatening approaches like a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack to take down a service in an attempt to promote social change.

In order to properly answer the question posed we must first define what cyber-war and cyber-terrorism are. The Oxford Dictionaries defines cyber-war as “The use of computer technology to disrupt the activities of a state or organization, especially the deliberate attacking of communication systems by another state or organization:” Although there is no dictionary definition of cyber-terrorism, The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has defined it as “the use of computer network tools to shut down critical national infrastructures (e.g., energy, transportation, government operations) or to coerce or intimidate a government or civilian population.” The author defines cyber terror as “the intimidation of civilian enterprise through the use of high technology to bring about political, religious, or ideological aims, actions that result in disabling or deleting critical infrastructure data or information.”

The Harvard Law Record article, "What is Cyber-terrorism? Indeed, even Experts Can't Agree," echoes the present disappointment of numerous scholastics, government officials, and security experts that a clear and consistently acknowledged meaning of the term cannot be settled. Endeavors to make a typical phrasing for cyber terrorism in the United States, for instance, have up to this point been exceedingly troublesome, with the FBI alone distributed three unmistakably diverse wordings FEMA, DOJ, and DOD, each having their particular precise definitions (Baranetsky, 2009). Leonard Bailey, a previous individual from the US National Security Division (NSD), communicated his worry is expressing "the territory experiences a constrained vocabulary

Cyberterrorism is the utilization of PC system instruments to hurt or close down basic national bases, e.g. transportation and government operations. The reason of cyberterrorism is that as countries and basic base turned out to be more subject to PC systems for their operation, new vulnerabilities are made. Cyberterrorism is an alluring alternative for cutting edge terrorists, who esteem its secrecy, its capability to exact gigantic harm, its mental effect, and its media offer. The risk postured by cyberterrorism has gotten the consideration of the broad communications, the security group, and the data innovation (IT) industry. Columnists, lawmakers, and specialists in an assortment of fields have promoted a situation in which complex digital terrorists electronically break into PCs that control dams or aviation authority frameworks, wreaking devastation and jeopardizing a large number of lives as well as national security itself. But, in spite of all the bleak forecasts of a digital produced doomsday, no single occurrence of genuine cyberterrorism has been recorded (Verton 129).

The availability of cheap cyber weapons has made cyber-terrorism a growing threat to the stability of America's critical infrastructures and society in general. Needless to say that cyber terrorism is a major issue for American policymakers and IT professionals. The growing threat to commercial and government entities has prompted organizations to develop effective strategies and methods to protect their resources and assets from the threat of attackers. Such strategies and methods include but are not limited to continual risk and vulnerability assessment, upgrade of software and use of tools such as encryption, firewalls and intrusion detection systems and the implementation of disaster recovery and business continuity plans in the case of a cyber incident. The following paper will offer a few basic definitions to illustrate the concept of cyber terrorism, discuss the physical and human aspects of cyber terrorism, offer assessment of the most pressing threats and the most vulnerable targets, recommend methods to combat national and international cyber terrorism. Finally, several preventative actions will be recommended for implementation. Finally, a basic checklist/template is also provided in order to better illustrate and summarize recommendations and suggestions.

Terrorist cyber-attacks on national institutions will result in greater devastation than a cyber-crime directed against an individual. At the current rate in which technology is increasing, establishments must constantly upgrade their system’s security. If the national institutions fail to be vigilant to the present day cyber threats, they will become victims of terrorist cyber-attacks. “Our nation's government, military, scientific, commercial and entertainment sectors all operate on the same networks as our adversaries” (Alexander 18). A terrorist cyber-attack that is successful, has the potential to put people at risk, by allowing sensitive information to get into the wrong hands, disrupting resources, or by altering system information in corporations, to cause harm or confusion. Since a terroristic attack is focused on causing violence or chaos, the targets at risk would be “energy sources and electric grids, water and sewer systems, manufacturing, banks, transportation and communication networks” (Brenner 15).

"The next generation of terrorists will grow up in a digital world, with ever more powerful and easy-to-use hacking tools at their disposal." - Dorothy E. Denning. This is becoming more and more apparent as time goes on. You hear something new every day about some company being "hacked" by the Chinese, Russians, Iranians, or North Koreans. The world we live in is becoming more and more digitized and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the threat of cyber-terrorism is only growing with the evolving technology. Tensions have been rising rapidly largely due to the multiple cyber-attacks being waged every day against various political

The drawback of Estonia's information technology framework was that its defensive protocol was not much secure and could be easily hacked. Moreover, the country was much depended on internet.

"Cyber Warfare is the use of computer technology to disrupt the activities of a state or organization, especially the deliberate attacking of information systems for strategic or military purposes" (Oxford Dictionary, 2016). While this definition may seem fitting on a global basis the idea of cyber crime can encompass any valuable information of an individual, company, government, or military entity. The term hacker came about in the early 80 's defining a couple of people where were proficient at manipulating computers. However, in 2016 the Oxford Dictionary defines hacker as "a person who uses computers to gain unauthorized access to data '. In the early stages of cyber crime hackers spread programs called worms, computer viruses and

Cybercrime has become a fast growing concern for the 21st century as businesses, institutions and individuals grow into an interconnected web of computer networks. Online business transactions, along with the sharing of personal information, are vulnerable to a host of disasters that can reap economic and social havoc. Some sources say that today, cybercrime costs more than $1.0 trillion to society--Global Industry Analysts, Inc. forecasted the world cyber security market to reach $80 billion by 2017 (Gale, 2011).