Essay On The Rise Of Terrorist Attacks Against Western Democracies In Media

After September 11, 2001, U.S. citizens were shocked that over 2,900 people were dead because of Islamic extremists (Kean, et al. "National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States"). More deaths occurred in the Paris and San Bernardino attacks. Tensions between the U.S. and Islamic extremists have not yet subsided. Americans receive information regarding Islamic extremists through the media, from which they form opinions on what the U.S.’s foreign policy with the Middle East should be, which affects military spending. To what extent has the media’s portrayal of Islamic extremists affected U.S. military spending and relations with the Middle East?

Besides friends using social media to connect with other friends or families keeping in touch with other relatives who are at a distance, in the recent years, terrorists have taken advantage of social media and used it as a platform to threaten and send jaw dropping messages to some of the most popular outlets across the nation. For this paper, I will examine how terrorists have used social media as propaganda. I will also analyze the trends in media and terrorism, and how it has provided access for the promotion of the violent messages as well as allowing the news of terrorist attacks and assassinations to reach many parts of the world within a matter of minutes.

The United States is fronting the conflict against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant; therefore, we feel strongly inclined to support the inhibition of online recruiting tactics used by ISIL. Previous attempts to thwart the online presence of ISIL have been misguided and incomprehensive - and have thus faltered against high expectations. Our reasoning for this stance is because in the past year alone, an estimated hundreds of recruits have joined ISIL through online mediums - additionally, ISIL has encouraged and coaxed recruits into committing domestic

Terrorism can be defined as the use of criminal violence to try to force a government to change. It can also be defined as the use of criminal violence that groups or individuals use to seek revenge and cause heartache amongst those that they want to hurt/threaten. Most terrorist groups prefer to target people for a more dramatic response and celebrate when the media broadcasts their violent acts on television and throughout the news. Lately, more and more deadly terrorist acts have been captured on film and broadcasted in all parts of the world. Sixty years ago recordings of terroristic acts didn’t spread through the world as quickly as they do now because technology wasn’t as advance. That is just one of the

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.

The worse attack on the United States computer network took place in 2008. The Deputy of Secretary of Defense, William J. Lynn III, described the event as a “network administrator’s worst fear: a rouge program operating silently, poised to deliver operational plans into the hands of an unknown adversary” (Lynn, 2010). The common thought that comes to mind when we think of an attack on a network infrastructure is that the attack is a complex attack coordinated by some “black hat ” hacker/cracker that had to decipher lines of code and encrypted algorithm to penetrate the United States network infrastructure. However, the most common attack and the most devastating attack to infect the United States network was a simple social engineering attack.

When speaking about al-Qaeda, this paper refers to an organization with numerous affiliates that promotes a global terrorist interpretation of jihad and thus inspires a movement of followers via the Internet. Jihadism is the modern ideology and terrorist interpretation of jihad, and jihadists are persons who hold up its principles and doctrines. An intermediate control level of al-Qaeda and other organizations exists, and it can be illustrated with the steady output of ideas and agendas. However, there are countless other actors who exert influence on jihadism online. Thus, it is preferable not to use the term "al-Qaeda" to describe the participants of online jihad. Most of them have nothing to do with al-Qaeda. The term al-Qaeda implies a

When a major terrorist attack happens, it not only kills innocent people, but can leave lasting effects on an area. In destroying this major building in the center of the city, it left a lasting impression on people. Even tough, the wreckage has been cleaned up, the terror that accompanied the action altered the environment and will always be remembered (Larkin, 2001). Furthermore, this lasting effect will fade some but never go away. It will always be remembered and the reason for the terrorist act will always be remembered. This again is why terrorists do what they do. It creates such a lasting memory and will never be forgotten.

September 11th changed the lives of many Americans, irrevocably. The horrendous attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon altered the way American’s viewed their positions within the world, not to mention their lives and their safety. The attacks brought terrorism to the forefront of national attention, in every aspect. The government became immediately immersed in an effort to understand and defeat terrorism, and simultaneously, the media, with its perverse fascination with violence and profit-driven espousal to round-the-clock, up-to-the-minute coverage, demonstrated an obsession with the attacks, by broadcasting almost nothing but the latest developments in the search and rescue efforts and investigations

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.

“If the media were not there to report terrorist acts and to explain their political and social significance...terrorism as such would cease to exist” said John O'Sullivan, an editor of the Times of London.1 This is also the way many other people feel about the recent increase in terrorist activity; they feel that the media is causing it. The media is doing this by fulfilling the terrorists' need for publicity.2 Terrorists need media publicity in order to get their views spread to the public.3 Because of this need for publicity, terrorists are committing their acts of terrorism in areas where a lot of publicity will be gained; the United States and Western Europe are the most recent targets. The bombings of the federal building in

In November 2015 an accord was reached with Tehran to limit its ambitions to proliferate atomic weapons, four months after the agreement, American officials noted a surge in the use of sophisticated computer espionage by Iran (Sanger&Perloth, 2015). Iranian hackers targeted individual U.S State Department employees who focus specifically on Iran and The Middle East, hackers gain access to the employees’ email accounts and other social media accounts. They had no idea that that this had happened until Facebook notify the victims that state-sponsored hackers had gain access to their accounts. Iran’s cyber skills capabilities are not equal those of China or Russia, though hacking social media accounts of government works to gain access to their contacts in the administration had not seen before by either China or Russia (Sanger&Perloth, 2015). This action shows ingenuity way beyond Russia’s hacking to The State Department’s unclassified email system (Sanger&Perthloth, 2015).

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?

The cyber-world around us is an evolving organic entity. The incredible advancements with technology and the interconnectivity between such systems make everyday life for the average American as easy as swiping a finger. From a person’s smartphone used to pass the time by mindlessly playing games to the United States’ federal computer networks filled with incredibly confidential databases and mainframes, the wide range of differing types of technology and networks is utilized for an even larger spectrum of capabilities, depending on who is operating. With a world that is becoming much more dependent on these networks running smoothly and efficiently as possible, these networks are becoming prime targets for individuals or organizations that may have other, more malicious ideas of how to utilize the true capabilities of these networks. Present day has seen its fair share of networks that have been compromised by unauthorized actors, but the real question that arises with this looming theory of “cyberterrorism” is what the actors’ desired endstate is. When a network is hacked and compromised, how the act is categorized is all dependent on the identity of those guilty, the intended targets, the desired outcome, and the overarching desired outcome the actors wished would come to fruition. All these components have led to the classification of cybercrimes, cyberterrorism,

“When I think Islam, I think belly dancers, bombs, and billionaires” This is something I have heard from many people’s mouths. When people think of the word Islam, or Muslim, a certain generalized picture comes to mind. I am sure this picture involves such things as sand, camels, oil, covered women, hookah, amongst other things. Though this is what the Western media generalizes Islam as, there is much more to Islam than the three B’s and these pictures that come to mind. Islam is not only a religion but is also a way of life. Like many things, Islam is stereotyped, generalized, and misunderstood. When most of us think of Islam we think of the “oppressed” women and “messed up” laws and we fail to see the truths of Islam and what it really stands for.