Terrorism through cyber space.
Cyber Terrorism - a term coined by the media and not the security agencies, has been extremely prevalent in recent years. A teenager spelling doom over a country by using the internet, are stories which used to be mentioned in movies and novels, few years ago. But with the advancement in technology they are becoming a reality today. These are cases of cyber terrorism.
There are several ways that a terror group can use the internet to inflict economic or morale damage to a nation and perpetrate cyber terrorism. One such way is by attacking economic and government communication networks. Ranging from defacing a website to denial of service (DoS) attacks, such attacks can vary in damage from minor embarrassment to catastrophic social and financial losses.
Today, the internet is full of videos and detailed manuals of how to build, do-it-yourself (DIY) bombs, mechanical weapons, etc. This provides a common man, access to such unhealthy information and then groups are formed to execute a mission.
There are many examples of cyber terrorism like, the recent attacks on Estonian government websites. Individuals like Gary McKinnon who hacked into the Pentagon and other military installations and using computer viruses and worms as platforms of protest. One of the most damaging attacks was the infection of NASA’s computer network with the WANK (Worms Against Nuclear Killers) worm in 1989.
One thing which comes out from this discussion, is that terrorists are using the cyber space to execute their dangerous missions. There are many security conferences, held around the globe that talk about the ways of curbing this menace. Surely, such awareness and knowledge will help in fighting cyber terrorism.
