Cyberterroist Attacks: The Fight Against Terrorism

In Himma’s terms, “hacktivism will be understood as involving unauthorized digital intrusions for the purpose of protesting some injustice or advancing some political agenda.” (Himma 14) An unauthorized digital intrusion is the manipulation of computers and networks belonging to someone else who in turn has their property rights violated. (Himma 1) Himma argues hacktivism is morally impermissible if and only if it harms innocent people or if the hacktivist stays anonymous in relation to the act, through three premises in Hacking as Politically Motivated Digital Civil Disobedience: Is Hacktivism Morally Justified? In this paper I am going to explore Himma’s argument and object to his premise that the amount of harm that is produced by an act of hacktivism depends on the moral nature of the attack and the moral standing of the victims.

The Internet powers our country. Not only do hundreds of millions of Americans use it daily, our government and states use it to do important national and international business. Our government already utilizes it to monitor the activity of its people. This monitoring has especially risen after events such as the Boston Bombing and the attacks of 9/11. The main reason that the government does this is to keep us safe. If the government puts more slack on this matter, then it will give a chance for terrorists to complete their objective. The normal person does not know how many terrorist attacks may have been stopped in the past years due to this surveillance, and how many lives it may have saved. Therefore, we cannot let our government halt

In this day and age living in the era of the computer, it has become more mainstream and common to hear of cyber attacks, and crime being committed on the internet. Activism however, has become a prominent way to protest or argue a political view. Using related technologies and the internet have become a vital way for some to share their views. With the rise of the internet, “hacktivism” has become a prominent way for protest groups to express while also promoting a political agenda often related to free speech, human rights, and freedom of information.

Today however, a new type of warfare has emerged and occurs when outside entities conduct an attack on a power grid, network, or both with the intent of causing damage. This type of warfare is called cyber warfare. In the United States computers control everything. It is no secret that hostile countries and terrorist organizations are cognizant and they know our economy, security, and infrastructure can be crippled by a successful cyber-attack. Examples of potential targets for cyber terrorists include military bases, water systems, banking facilities, air traffic control centers and power plants. Even the Commander in Chief, President Obama has stated the threat of a cyber war is real and we must prepare for it and increase our security measures. First, this paper will discuss cyberterrorism and cyber-attacks as they pose a direct threat to national security and the economy. Then, we will review cyber-attacks against the U.S. from China, Iran, and Russia along with the impact and possible ramifications from those attacks. Finally, this paper discusses U.S. strategies to minimize the impact of cyber-attacks.

Guns, knives, and conventional explosives have so far remained the weapons of choice for most terrorists; however, recently terrorist have gone to the tactics of using vehicles as well, since such weapons can cause many casualties and are relatively easy to acquire and use. But some terrorist groups now show interest in acquiring the capability to use chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) materials [Federal Emergency Management Agency, (July 2002)]. It is difficult to predict the likelihood of a CBRN attack, but most experts agree that today's terrorists are seeking the ability to use such agents in order to cause mass casualties [Federal Emergency Management Agency, (July 2002)]. Cyber-attacks are often considered in the same context with CBRN. Respectable experts have published sobering scenarios about the potential impact of a successful cyber-attack on the United States. Already, hackers and criminals have exploited some of our vulnerabilities [National Research Council. (2007)]. Terrorists are making extensive use of the new information technologies, and a conventional terrorist attack along with a coordinated cyber-attack could exponentially compound the damage [National Research Council. (2007)]. This changing nature of the terrorist threat raises the stakes in getting American counterterrorist policies and practices

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

The international hacktivist organization set out on a mission to shut down the Twitter profiles of individuals suspected to be ISIS supporters. Anonymous claims it has already caused 25,000 of the 39,000 suspected ISIS profiles to be

Anonymous is an international network of online hacktivists who work to spread their agenda worldwide. They accomplish this mainly through distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on the organizations websites. Their targets range from government agencies to large corporations. This group is the single most accomplished hacktivist group in the world. They have successfully directed attacks on government agencies of numerous countries, ISIS, child pornography websites, Westboro Baptist Church, PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, and Sony. The group's actions have impacted the world. With access to highly skilled hackers, Anonymous also has the ability to steal data and further disseminate their agenda.

Cyber-terrorism is the convergence of terrorism and cyberspace. It is generally understood to mean unlawful attacks and threats of attack against computers, networks, and the information stored therein when done to intimidate or coerce a government or its people in furtherance of political or social objectives.

In the aftermath of the Paris attack last week which left 129 dead, Anonymous declared an all-out cyber war with the Islamic State. Also earlier this year, following the terrorist attacks in various countries, the hacker group took down a number of social networking accounts with links to the terrorist group, ISIS, later declaring that the cyber world belongs to them and not to ISIS.

Our government would have everyone believe that these groups of Internet activists are terrorists. They use words like terrorists to incite public fear and make the public view these hackers as evil. The reason that governments do not like hacktivists is that hacktivists can access information that governments wanted to keep secret. One very well-known group of hacktivists is called Anonymous. Anonymous is a group that sets out to keep the government in check by using Internet. It’s highly unfortunate that groups like Anonymous have to wear a mask and hide their identity just to protest against what they believe is not right; the problem is some don’t see internet protesting this way. As one supporter states “….and ‘hackers’ are now ‘hacktivists,' presumed by wretched propagandists like Michael Moore to be committing acts of ‘patriotism’ rather than propagating wanton electronic vandalism, fraud, intimidation and theft” (Elmore). It is statements and ideas like this that make public protests such a dangerous activity. America is a republic, but in this republic everyone must agree with the ideals set down by politicians; if not, prison awaits

For example in 2014 Sony Pictures Entertainment was hacked by a group of hackers called “Guardians of Peace.” They were upset about a specific movie that Sony was releasing, which depicted North Korea’s government as a parody. After threatening Sony to take it down, they finally hacked them. They took over 100tb of data from it’s servers. That data included emails between executives and even a handful of unreleased movies. (Griffin, Andrew) This hack was unprecedented in its scale and vengeance. Because of its scale, this hack could only be accomplished by a group working towards a single goal. This again is contrary to the stereotype that hackers work

What Ben Mekuch and Patrick McGuire explained within this article is how there are “good hackers” out there defending America from the “bad hackers.” Ben and Patrick have stated that the multi-factioned hacktivist force known as Anonymous have been at a cyberwar with the terrorist group ISIS since of June 2014. Anonymous’ battle with IS had some successes however, Anonymous have only been attacking IS Twitter, Facebook, and other social media accounts with DDos attacks. Even though these slowed down IS members down, Ben and Patrick have reported and said, “Anonymous defaming or destroying an IS-linked Twitter account could mean very little: fighters just make new accounts and keep living online.” [Par. 21] As for now, Ben and Patrick are patiently

Prevalent to the current trend now is the dependency of the society on Information technology and communication systems. Every aspect of human life is one way or the other linked and controlled by information technology tools. The importance of information technology cannot be over emphasized as its unavailability could lead to a form of disaster or the other. Pivotal infrastructures like finance, healthcare, education and security are driven by information technology. However, information technology and its benefits are accompanied by vulnerabilities and risks that can be exploited by people with the necessary technical skills. Individuals like ‘Hackers’ and ‘Cyber Terrorist’ can cause disruption to information systems, commit financial fraud and also attack computers and networks. These attacks and disruptions could result to violence against people and properties. In some cases, death, serious injuries and severe economic loss could occur as a result of these attacks.

Cyber warfare is a battle without causalities, a war waged only by written words, fought digitally by those who are bent at disrupting the infrastructure of a nation built on sweat, labor and concrete. Digital battles that are being fought not for money, not for a simple website defacement proclaiming you are the most ‘l33t hax0r on the interwebs’. One of the most major, yet under reported example of this; a lowly worm named Stuxnet. A worm, by the most mundane of definitions, is a self-replicating program, usually malicious, and whose