What Is Cyber-Terrorism?

The most recents detections of how cyber warfare is inevitably coming was the accusations of Russia hacking the the Democratic National Committee and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email’s releasing damaging evidence against them which ultimately lead to Donald Trump being named the President of The United States (Diamond, 2016). The effects of cyber warfare have leaked over in to televise series, forming shows such as CSI cyber, and the gaming world, Call Of Duty Infinite Warfare. Neglect regarding cyber security can: undermine the reputation of both the government and elected officials; force unacceptable expenditures associated with the cost of cleaning up after security breaches; cripple governments' abilities to respond to a wide variety of homeland security emergency situations or recover from natural or man-made threats; and disable elected officials' ability to govern (Lohrmann, 2010). Classified information such as overseas operators and attacks, missile locations, response plans and weaknesses, and much more cripples America’s ability to defend itself from enemies both foreign and domestic. To combat cyber terrorism is the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA. In an article titled “Why Cybersecurity Information Sharing Is A Positive Step for Online Security” it is discussed that under CISA, the Department of Homeland security will have more responsibility for domestic cybersecurity. CISA’s fundamental purpose is to better enable cybersecurity information to be shared between the private and public sectors (2016). The sharing of threat information between public and private sectors can give the the United States a head start by allowing them to share information rapidly and more often to combat enemy threats while still providing safety for privacy and civil

As the internet usage has increased, it also has become an element for radicalization, therefore, develop a national cybercrime unit model to analyze potential terrorist attacks, addressing virtual space and technology.

Cyber security policy is largely dominated by two separate but similar incidents, cyber terrorism and state sponsored events. A cyber terrorist attack may be defined as a computer based attack, the purpose of which is to cause enough destruction that it intimidates a government into compliance for political purposes (XX1). State sponsored attacks, by contrast, is the intentional use of cyberspace by governments to illegally obtain classified information from another state. Such information may be used for malicious purposes, such as assessing an enemy state's weaknesses (XX). As mentioned in Chapter 3, Canada's cyber security agencies have existed since the early days of the Cold War. However, the maintenance of Canada's

Hypothesis: The United State’s foreign policy will make a shift in the coming years to focus more intently on suppressing individual groups that use terrorism as a political strategy, rather than focusing on specific and identifiable States as in the past. The organizations mentioned before will be using the Internet to coordinate attacks, as well as attempt to hack US Government systems to their advantage. As a result, cyber security and antiterrorism stand to be the biggest future challenges for American foreign policy.

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

One of the most widely cited paper on the definition of Cyber-terrorism is Denning’s Testimony before the Special Oversight Panel on Terrorism (Denning, 2000). Here, Denning makes the following statement:

“These incidents indicate that the Internet is being used as a “cyberplanning” tool for terrorists. It provides terrorists with anonymity, command and control resources, and a host of other measures to coordinate and integrate attack options” (Thomas, 2003). Thomas defines cyberplanning as a digital coordination of an integrated plan stretching across geographical boundaries that may or may not result in bloodshed. It provides terrorists with anonymity, command and control resources, and a host of other measures to coordinate and integrate attack options (Thomas, 2003). It is clear that through the many websites found by the government, that al Qaeda intent is to cause

Adam Segal’s “The Hacked World Order” reveals many prevalent issues in today’s technologically centered society. Starting at Year Zero, June 2012 to June 2013, the battle over cyberspace witnessed world-changing cyberattacks. This was accomplished due to the fact that nearly 75% of the world’s population has easy access to a mobile phone, and the Internet connects nearly 40% of the total human population, which is nearly 2.7 billion people. With that being said, cyberattacks are becoming a more realistic form of terror.

Terrorism has drastically become an occurring issue in America and many other foreign countries. An FBI agent, Keith Lourdeau claims that terrorist use media to obtain power by hacking companies for information and money, recruiting potential terrorist, and causing distress to our community. However, Lourdeau contradicts his argument by claiming that “If a terrorist lacked the technical sophistication to conduct a computer attack, and chose to recruit a hacker, potential damage would be increased if that hacker was an insider” (Lourdeau 2). Although it may be true that cyber terrorist might pursue cybercrime, the word use of “potential” leads readers to believe that such acts aren't prominent enough to be concerned of a terrorist attack. In fact, James Lewis, a director of Technology and Public Policy Program, argues that “exploits against Georgia..did no damage other than defacing government websites” (Lewis 2) meaning that terrorism can't be determined without any physical damage

Cyber security – 25 terms, including “cyber terror,” “malware,” “virus,” “hacker,” “worm,” “China” and “Trojan.” And the list goes on and on and on

Cyber-space and cyber-warfare are two terms that have varied definitions from between agencies and institutions. Since there are varying definitions of cyber-space it is important to accurately define the new digital domain where cyber-warfare will take place. A comprehensive definition of cyberspace explicated by Thomas Wingfield states,

According to Furnell and Warren (1999), Evidence suggests that technology is growingly seen as a potential tool for terrorist organizations and the widespread use of information technology by terrorist groups and organizations has led to the birth of a new class of menace termed “Cyberterrorism”. Cyberterrorism could be used in many diverse ways. Sometimes, a country’s pivotal infrastructures could be shut down and harmed using computer network and tools. There have been impediments in trying to give a clear and concise definition to the term “cyberterrorism”. But Denning (2007) which supersedes Denning (2000) gives an unambiguous definition to cyberterrorism:

By the year of 2016, investments in online security are expected to reach $86bn (Contu et al, 2012). Although this might seem a large sum of money, it is considered necessary since there is an increase in online risks from all over the world. Professional hackers develop malware on a global scale and on a 24/7 basis. Hackers have five objectives when spreading malware over the Internet: to infect/distribute, to steal, to persist, to control and for intelligence (Morris, 2010).

From the advent of the Internet, there came with it the opportunity for any of its users to have access to any information they seeked right at their fingertips. With this access; entertainment, market opportunities, educational information, productivity, and global communication were able to grow and flourish, however with these gains seen came with it the weakening of the once secure national strength seen in nations. In the last two decades cyberspace has been defined as the 'fifth battleground’ for international relations, with the aspects of cyber war, cyber terrorism, and cybercrime as some of the largest threats to the security of the national and international community. (Popović, 2013) With this ‘fifth battleground’ of the cyberspace thrown into the international battlegrounds of old, its effectiveness and effect on the both the modern state and the international bodies of the world, posing the question of how will this increased accessibility to the cyberspace will affect national security in the coming years?

Think of the word terrorism. What is the first thing that comes to mind? One might think of kidnapping, assassination, bombing, or even genocide and guerrilla warfare. Because it is such a broad and complex issue, an all-encompassing definition is hard to formulate. The United States Department of Defence defines terrorism as…