Cyberspace and Terrorism
Jamie Lee
National University
HSE 635
Communication and Security
Khatibloo Mohamad
Nov 24, 2016
Abstract Around the world people no longer just communicate or interact with each another through written letters, emails or over the phone. Now people are using the World Wide Web as their main source of communication. Social media being one of the new forms of interaction people elect to use in order to communicate their thoughts, feelings and share life changes. The internet is an deep ocean filled with ways for people to socialize, stay connected and make life overall more convenient. This luxury is not available to everyone and can be taken advantage of by the wrong people (Nacos, 2016). Terrorist organizations are able to use the internet and all the available sites to their benefit, social media sites being the most popular. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat are all forms of computer-mediated technologies used for personal entertainment but is also being used by terrorists and terrorist organizations. Groups such as al-Qaida, ISIS and other terrorist organizations use social media for their benefit of recruiting future terrorist, promoting their cause, preaching their ideologies and raising funds for their terrorist operations, not to mention also spreading fear (Lohrmann, 2016). The dark web is also an area of interest terrorist like to use for their benefit where they can again raise funding and possibly recruit.
The sharing of information may well be the most advanced activity of the twenty-first century occurring across ages and backgrounds with relative ease. Nevertheless, the use of information that is aired through the internet raises several genuine concerns regarding nature, intent, source, and destination as well as the consequences of the content. This is particularly true when the information has to do with people 's identities and other activities that may touch on critical aspects of national security and unauthorized business. As such, there is a mix of reactions among individuals regarding the extent of privacy they would like regarding information that they share or retrieve on the internet. While some may have genuine concerns such as protecting their identity, others are on malicious tracks to cover their person and conduct unwarranted business on the web. The mix of concerns led to the rise of the Dark Web on darknets. A darknet is an overlay network that utilizes the public Internet but requires authorization or special software to access mainly to protect the user’s identity and location from network surveillance and traffic analysis (Sui, Caverlee & Rudesill 2003). Such trends on the internet raise the question; is the Dark Web an important and necessary tool to offset pervasive online surveillance in contemporary society or is the moral panic surrounding the Dark Web in global news media justified? The aim of this research is to answer the raised question
The internet is serving as virtual meeting for billions of users. The intelligence-gathering is leveraging the internet using hard data for online links. The social networking sites are the main complementary link to any information. The social networking sites provide the most important information for communication with anyone and joining different groups. It can identify terror-threats and incipient plots. The internet can provide quantum and quality of information by any member of the group. The internet penetration of
The World Wide Web, or the Internet as most people call it, has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before. When the Internet went public back in the early 90s, no one new that it would rapidly change into a necessity of life for some. Today the Internet still offers that promise, but it also has proven in some respects to be a digital menace. With some certainty it can be said that al Qaeda loves the Internet. Al Qaeda uses information technology to gather intelligence, recruit, gain donations, publicize their terrorism, cyber planning, and command and control. The use of information technology directly relates to cybercrime and terrorism from al Qaeda because they use it to inflict pain issues with their enemies.
In order for ISIS to continue a large social media campaign, they have to expose themselves while also providing U.S. officials capabilities of their organization. Social media computing provides ISIS with multiple cyber resource data. “ISIS uses social media as well as encrypted online communications to spread message” (Sanchez, np, 2015). Blocking their use of social media accounts may be effective for a short period of time but does not affect ISIS’s future strategies. One strategy for social media used is to spark single attacks from people who believe in ISIS’s ideology beliefs. Regardless of where people are, mental illness people get tricked in playing a role in terrorism. The propaganda that ISIS provides are directed to people who are already prone to violence. Social networking is a form of social engineering which includes how spreading information is conducted whether it be a visualization or virus of some sort with a goal to radicalize a
Cyber Crime is described as criminal activity committed via use of electronic communications with respect to cyber fraud or identity theft through phishing and spoofing. There are many other forms of cyber-crime also such as harassment, pornography etc. via use of information technology.
Cyber security is a major concern for every department, business, and citizen of the United States because technology impacts every aspect of our daily lives. The more we use technology the more complacent, we get with the information that is stored within our cyber networks. The more complacent, we get, the more vulnerable we become to cyber-attacks because we fail to update the mechanisms that safeguard our information. Breaches to security networks are detrimental to personal, economic, and national security information. Many countries, like Russia, China, Israel, France, and the United Kingdom, now have the abilities and technology to launch cyber-attacks on the United States. In the last five years there have been several attacks on cyber systems to gain access to information maintained by major businesses and the United States Government. Cyber-attacks cause serious harm to the United States’ economy, community, and the safety, so we need to build stronger cyber security mechanisms. Based on my theoretical analysis, I recommend the following:
In the previous five years, cybersecurity has turned into the most looked for after calling around the world. More than 90 percent of respondents to an overview directed by the Ponemon Institute (2011) detailed being a casualty to cyberattacks amid the most recent year, costing all things considered more than $2 million for each association. This number keeps on ascending as the two programmers and security devices progress. As indicated by PwC, roughly 33% of all U.S. organizations are as of now utilizing digital protection (Lindros and Tittel, 2016).
In order for the Russian government to benefit from the effects of the cyber operations
The branches of the military, for a couple generations, have always been the Army, Navy, Air force, Marine Corps, and the Coast Guard; however, in an ever evolving digital world, the notion that outer space would be the next military front is being rapidly replaced by the idea that cyber space will be the next arms race. The United States has been defending attacks on their infrastructure day after day, night after night, when one hacker on one side of the world sleeps, another takes their place to attempt to compromise the US government. The motives may range from a political ‘hacktivist’ trying to prove a point, to an economic spy, trying to gain a competitive edge on its more upstart rivals, to an attempt to control the United States
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?
In today’s world technology has evolved to the point where a large amount of information is stored in cyberspace. It is because of this type of storage people around the world have an easier time at accessing information than ever before. The time before the late 20th century gathering information was long and tedious to get a book that the library did not own would take at least a couple of weeks depending on the time period or it may not have been possible to obtain that book. But now people can access a vast amount of information in a matter of minutes. Example, in modern times if someone wanted to know about a different culture they could simple look up the information on a computer or any device that had access to
The government can implement many new methods to increase security, or better yet give off the image of better security which is what they have predominantly done, yet ultimately there will always be a way to bypass or come up with a new way to infiltrate that measure. The government so far has done a variety of things ranging from the closing of the Dulles airport (permanently), working with the FAA on new security measures, having pilots carry handguns, and a not so specific, profiling.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the article Cyber Threats to Mobile Phones, phones are now sharing hardware and software similar to a PC and becoming each time more like a PC. Therefore, the risks of being hacked are increasing, allowing hackers to attack mobile devices the same way as if they were doing it with a regular PC. Personal and professional information are more often stored on mobile devices therefore it is imperative to have our data secure. Security solutions for mobile devices are not as broad or high-tech as those for PCs. The majority of mobile security relies on the proper use and smart choices that the user makes on a daily basis to be protected against cyber attacks. Even the most careful person can be attacked but the possibilities of that happening are less when you are proactive.
There are several different forms of cyber weapons, all of which can be used for either an attack or espionage. There are principally five common practices. The first of three attacks that will be examined is spoofing.
The Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary defines cyber security measures taken to protect a computer or computer system (as on the Internet) against unauthorized access or attack Most people think that hackers are just people that want to mess up your computer, but real hackers break into systems because they want to see what they can do, then they might leave a message on the victims computer, but that’s it. So, the computer security people protect from those other hackers that want to mess up peoples computers. The means we take can as individual to protect ourselves in the cyber world is be anyomous on websites, don’t post your personal information ,have virus protection install on your computer, get spy