Lably
Skip to content

Cyberterrorism

Use of the internet for terrorist purposes

  • 35 min read
  • 4 chapters

Related on Lably

Through Internet, Threat and Computer network

Lab · Class 12Networking BasicsLab · Class 10–11Sentiment Analysis On TextLab · Class 9–12Prompt Engineering LabLab · Class 6–12Ancient Indian Ocean Trade

Cyberterrorism can be also defined as the intentional use of computers, networks, and public internet to cause destruction and harm for personal objectives. Experienced cyberterrorists, who are very skilled in terms of hacking can cause massive damage to government systems and might leave a country in fear of further attacks. The objectives of such terrorists may be political or ideological since this can be considered a form of terror.

There is much concern from government and media sources about potential damage that could be caused by cyberterrorism, and this has prompted efforts by government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), National Security Agency (NSA), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to put an end to cyber attacks and cyberterrorism.

There have been several major and minor instances of cyberterrorism. Al-Qaeda utilized the internet to communicate with supporters and even to recruit new members. Estonia, a Baltic country which is constantly evolving in terms of technology, became a battleground for cyberterrorism in April 2007 after disputes regarding the relocation of a WWII soviet statue located in Estonia's capital Tallinn.

Overview

There is debate over the basic definition of the scope of cyberterrorism. These definitions can be narrow such as the use of Internet to attack other systems in the Internet that result to violence against persons or property. They can also be broad, those that include any form of Internet usage by terrorists to conventional attacks on information technology infrastructures. There is variation in qualification by motivation, targets, methods, and centrality of computer use in the act. U.S. government agencies also use varying definitions and that none of these have so far attempted to introduce a standard that is binding outside of their sphere of influence.

Depending on context, cyberterrorism may overlap considerably with cybercrime, cyberwar or ordinary terrorism. Eugene Kaspersky, founder of Kaspersky Lab, now feels that "cyberterrorism" is a more accurate term than "cyberwar". He states that "with today's attacks, you are clueless about who did it or when they will strike again. It's not cyber-war, but cyberterrorism." He also equates large-scale cyber weapons, such as the Flame Virus and NetTraveler Virus which his company discovered, to biological weapons, claiming that in an interconnected world, they have the potential to be equally destructive.

If cyberterrorism is treated similarly to traditional terrorism, then it only includes attacks that threaten property or lives, and can be defined as the leveraging of a target's computers and information, particularly via the Internet, to cause physical, real-world harm or severe disruption of infrastructure.

Many academics and researchers who specialize in terrorism studies suggest that cyberterrorism does not exist and is really a matter of hacking or information warfare. They disagree with labeling it as terrorism because of the unlikelihood of the creation of fear, significant physical harm, or death in a population using electronic means, considering current attack and protective technologies.

If death or physical damage that could cause human harm is considered a necessary part of the cyberterrorism definition, then there have been few identifiable incidents of cyberterrorism, although there has been much policy research and public concern. Modern terrorism and political violence is not easily defined, however, and some scholars assert that it is now "unbounded" and not exclusively concerned with physical damage.

There is an old saying that death or loss of property are the side products of terrorism, the main purpose of such incidents is to create terror in peoples' minds and harm bystanders. If any incident in cyberspace can create terror, it may be rightly called cyberterrorism. For those affected by such acts, the fears of cyberterrorism are quite real.

As with cybercrime in general, the threshold of required knowledge and skills to perpetrate acts of cyberterrorism has been steadily diminishing thanks to freely available hacking suites and online courses. Additionally, the physical and virtual worlds are merging at an accelerated rate, making for many more targets of opportunity which is evidenced by such notable cyber attacks as Stuxnet, the Saudi petrochemical sabotage attempt in 2018 and others.

Defining cyberterrorism

Assigning a concrete definition to cyberterrorism can be hard, due to the difficulty of defining the term terrorism itself. Multiple organizations have created their own definitions, most of which are overly broad. There is also controversy concerning overuse of the term, hyperbole in the media and by security vendors trying to sell "solutions".

One way of understanding cyberterrorism involves the idea that terrorists could cause massive loss of life, worldwide economic chaos and environmental damage by hacking into critical infrastructure systems. The nature of cyberterrorism covers conduct involving computer or Internet technology that:

  1. is motivated by a political, religious or ideological cause
  2. is intended to intimidate a government or a section of the public to varying degrees
  3. seriously interferes with infrastructure

The term "cyberterrorism" can be used in a variety of different ways, but there are limits to its use. An attack on an Internet business can be labeled cyberterrorism, however when it is done for economic motivations rather than ideological it is typically regarded as cybercrime. Convention also limits the label "cyberterrorism" to actions by individuals, independent groups, or organizations. Any form of cyberwarfare conducted by governments and states would be regulated and punishable under international law.

The Technolytics Institute defines cyberterrorism as

[t]he premeditated use of disruptive activities, or the threat thereof, against computers and/or networks, with the intention to cause harm or further social, ideological, religious, political or similar objectives. Or to intimidate any person in furtherance of such objectives.

The term appears first in defense literature, surfacing (as "cyber-terrorism") in reports by the U.S. Army War College as early as 1998.

The National Conference of State Legislatures, an organization of legislators created to help policymakers in the United States with issues such as economy and homeland security defines cyberterrorism as:

[T]he use of information technology by terrorist groups and individuals to further their agenda. This can include use of information technology to organize and execute attacks against networks, computer systems and telecommunications infrastructures, or for exchanging information or making threats electronically. Examples are hacking into computer systems, introducing viruses to vulnerable networks, web site defacing, Denial-of-service attacks, or terroristic threats made via electronic communication.

The American Federal Emergency Management agency defines cyberterrorism as:

[T]he illegal threat and the attack against computers, networks, and information stored, where it is carried out to frighten and force the government or its people to achieve political or social objectives.

NATO defines cyberterrorism as "[a] cyberattack using or exploiting computer or communication networks to cause sufficient destruction or disruption to generate fear or to intimidate a society into an ideological goal".

The United States National Infrastructure Protection Center defined cyberterrorism as:

A criminal act perpetrated by the use of computers and telecommunications capabilities resulting in violence, destruction, and/or disruption of services to create fear by causing confusion and uncertainty within a given population, with the goal of influencing a government or population to conform to a political, social, or ideological agenda.

The FBI, another United States agency, defines "cyber terrorism" as "premeditated, politically motivated attack against information, computer systems, computer programs, and data which results in violence against non-combatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents".

These definitions tend to share the view of cyberterrorism as politically and/or ideologically inclined. One area of debate is the difference between cyberterrorism and hacktivism. Hacktivism is "the marriage of hacking with political activism". Both actions are politically driven and involve using computers, however cyberterrorism is primarily used to cause harm. It becomes an issue because acts of violence on the computer can be labeled either cyberterrorism or hacktivism.

Types of cyberterror capability

In 1999 the Center for the Study of Terrorism and Irregular Warfare at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, defined three levels of cyberterror capability:

  • Simple-Unstructured: the capability to conduct basic hacks against individual systems using tools created by someone else. The organization possesses little target-analysis, command-and-control, or learning capability.
  • Advanced-Structured: the capability to conduct more sophisticated attacks against multiple systems or networks and possibly, to modify or create basic hacking-tools. The organization possesses an elementary target-analysis, command-and-control, and learning capability.
  • Complex-Coordinated: the capability for a coordinated attack capable of causing mass-disruption against integrated, heterogeneous defenses (including cryptography). Ability to create sophisticated hacking tools. Highly capable target-analysis, command-and-control, and organization learning-capability.

Concerns

Cyberterrorism is becoming more and more prominent on social media today. As the Internet becomes more pervasive, individuals or groups can use the anonymity afforded by cyberspace to threaten other individuals, specific groups (with membership based, for example, on ethnicity or belief), communities and entire countries, without the inherent threat of identification, capture, injury, or death of the attacker that being physically present would bring. Many groups such as Anonymous, use tools such as denial-of-service attacks to attack and censor groups which oppose them, creating many concerns for freedom and respect for differences of thought.

Many believe that cyberterrorism is an extreme threat to countries' economies, and fear an attack could potentially lead to another Great Depression. Several leaders agree that cyberterrorism has the highest percentage of threat over other possible attacks on U.S. territory. Although natural disasters are considered a top threat and have proven to be devastating to people and land, there is ultimately little that can be done to prevent such events from happening. Thus, the expectation is to focus more on preventative measures that will make Internet attacks impossible for execution.

Computer systems continue to be assigned increased responsibility while becoming more complex and interdependent as the use of internet expands; sabotage or terrorism via the internet has become a threat, and could possibly "end the human race." It is easier to access illicit activities in the cyberspace through the Dark Web.(registration required) The Internet of Things promises to further merge the virtual and physical worlds, which some experts see as an incentive for states to use terrorist proxies.

Dependence on the Internet is rapidly increasing on a worldwide scale, creating a platform for international cyber-terror plots to be formulated and executed as a direct threat to national security. For terrorists, cyber-based attacks have distinct advantages over physical attacks. They can be conducted remotely, anonymously, and relatively cheaply, and they do not require significant investment in weapons, explosives or personnel. The effects can be widespread and profound. Incidents of cyberterrorism are likely to increase. They can be expected to take place through denial-of-service attacks, malware, and other methods that are difficult to envision today. One example involves the deaths involving the Islamic State and the online social networks Twitter, Google, and Facebook – leading to legal action being taken against them, that ultimately resulted in them being sued.

In an article about cyber attacks by Iran and North Korea, The New York Times observes:

The appeal of digital weapons is similar to that of nuclear capability: it is a way for an outgunned, outfinanced nation to even the playing field. "These countries are pursuing cyberweapons the same way they are pursuing nuclear weapons," said James A. Lewis, a computer security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "It's primitive; it's not top of the line, but it's good enough and they are committed to getting it."

In addition, Cyberterrorism has also been documented to arouse negative emotions. Recent studies have suggested that Cyberterrorism produces heightened levels of anger and stress, which do not differ drastically from the effects of conventional terrorism. Researchers also noted that Cyberterrorism produced higher levels of stress than anger, and the responses are not dependent on the lethality of the attack.

History

Public interest in cyberterrorism began in the late 1990s, when the term was coined by Barry C. Collin. As 2000 approached, the fear and uncertainty about the millennium bug heightened, as did the potential for attacks by cyber terrorists. Although the millennium bug was by no means a terrorist attack or plot against the world or the United States, it did act as a catalyst in sparking the fears of a possibly large-scale devastating cyber-attack. Commentators noted that many of the facts of such incidents seemed to change, often with exaggerated media reports.

The high-profile terrorist attacks in the United States on 11 September 2001, and the ensuing war on terror by the US led to further media coverage of the potential threats of cyberterrorism in the years following. Mainstream media coverage often discusses the possibility of a large attack making use of computer networks to sabotage critical infrastructure with the aim of putting human lives in jeopardy or causing disruption on a national scale either directly or by disruption of the national economy.

Authors such as Winn Schwartau and John Arquilla are reported to have had considerable financial success selling books which described what were purported to be plausible scenarios of mayhem caused by cyberterrorism. Many critics claim that these books were unrealistic in their assessments of whether the attacks described (such as nuclear meltdowns and chemical plant explosions) were possible. A common thread throughout what critics perceive as cyberterror-hype is that of non-falsifiability; that is, when the predicted disasters fail to occur, it only goes to show how lucky we've been so far, rather than impugning the theory.

In 2016, for the first time ever, the Department of Justice charged Ardit Ferizi with cyberterrorism. He is accused of allegedly hacking into a military website and stealing the names, addresses, and other personal information of government and military personnel and selling it to ISIS.

On the other hand, it is also argued that, despite substantial studies on cyberterrorism, the body of literature is still unable to present a realistic estimate of the actual threat. For instance, in the case of a cyberterrorist attack on a public infrastructure such as a power plant or air traffic control through hacking, there is uncertainty as to its success because data concerning such phenomena are limited.

Current threats

Cyberterrorism ranks among the highest potential security threats in the world. It has become more critical than the development of nuclear weapons or the current conflicts between nations. Due to the pervasiveness of the internet and the amount of responsibility assigned to this technology, digital weapons pose a threat to entire economic or social systems. Some of the most critical international security concerns include:

Denial-of-service attack – Millions of Denial of Service attacks occur every year and the service disruption can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each hour they are down. It is important to keep critical systems secured and redundant to remain online during these attacks.

Social Engineering – In 1997 an experiment conducted by the NSA concluded that thirty-five hackers were able to access critical pentagon computer systems and could easily edit accounts, reformat data and even shut down entire systems. Often they used phishing tactics such as calling offices and pretending to be technicians to gain passwords.

Third Party Software – Major retailers use thousands of separate third-party recourses and at least 23% of those assets have at least one critical vulnerability, potentially increasing risks to network security and personal data.

Future threats

As technology becomes more and more integrated into society, new vulnerabilities and security threats are opened up on these complex networks that we have set up. If an intruder was to gain access to these networks they have the potential to threaten entire communities or economic systems. There is no certainty for what events will take place in the future, which is why it is important that there are systems build to adapt to the changing environment.

The most apparent cyberterrorism threat in our near future will involve the state of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies cannot expect that every home office is up to date and secure so they must adopt a zero-trust policy from home devices. This means that they must assume corporate resources and unsecured devices are sharing the same space and they must act accordingly.

The rise of cryptocurrency has also sparked some additional threats in the realm of security. Cyber criminals are now hijacking home computers and company networks in order to mine certain cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. This mining process requires an immense amount of computer processing power which can cripple a business’ network and lead to severe downtime if the issue is not resolved.

Sign in to keep reading

3 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Computing and communication

ISBNUnique numeric book identifier since 1970X (social network)American social networking serviceWayback MachineDigital archive by the Internet ArchivePython (programming language)General-purpose programming languageMacOSOperating system for Apple computersUnicodeCharacter encoding standard