Essay About Terrorism

A variety of violent tactics are used in terrorism in order to accomplish a specific political objective. Since terrorism tends to refer to violent acts carried out by non-state actors, it is typically defined by governments. Therefore, due to the negative connotations attached to it, defining terrorism has presented a number of difficulties. The DoS, DoD, DHS, and DoJ use different definitions of terrorism, which are described, compared, and contrasted in this essay. It also entails creating a definition of cyberterrorism that incorporates both the principles of conventional assault strategies and the effects of a cybercrime attack.

The term “terrorism” is typically used by states. For instance, United State Department of Defence (DoD) defines terrorism as the use of unlawful violence or threat to instill fear intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of their goals (Tafoya 2011). Department of Homeland Security (DHS) defines terrorism as any activity carried with the motive of endangering individual’s life or has an adverse effect on the economy and is a desecration of the criminal laws of the United States or any State. This action is intended to endanger individual’s life in three ways. First, terrorism is intended to coerce or threaten a civilian population. The terrorist may also deploy intimidation or coercion to government’s policy. Lastly, terrorist’s activity may result in an assassination, mass destruction or kidnapping. On the other hand, United State Department of State (DoS) defines Terrorism as, “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents”. United States Department of Justice (DoJ) defines terrorism as the illegal use of force and violence against people or stuff to coerce or intimidate the civilian population or a government in furtherance of political or social goals, asserted by Tafoya (2011).

There are many similarities in DoS, DoJ, DHS, and DoD’s terrorism definitions. For instance, in both definitions, violence is committed. In both definitions, innocent civilians are targeted by terrorists. Another similarity is that terrorism is intended to cause coerce, or fear, or threaten an enemy. In both definitions, terrorism is carried as with the intent of realizing the military, political, racial, religious or ideological goal. Lastly, in all definitions, terrorism is meant to cause violence with malicious disregard for its consequences.

On the other hand, cyberterrorism is defined as a cyber-attack exploiting or using computing device or communication networks to cause significant destruction to generate fear or intimidate a society into an ideological goal. United State National Infrastructure Protection Centre, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security defines terrorism as a criminal act perpetrated through computing devices which cause violence, death, and destruction with intention of coercing a government to change its policies (Ashley, 2008).

The term cyberterrorism includes cyberspace and terrorism terms. The term cyber means skilled in steering or governing. Therefore, cyberterrorism refers to the use of weapons and technology in executing terrorist’s activities. Cyberterrorism is the only method deployed by cyber terrorists in executing their agendas. The first hackers merely advocated the free sharing of information and they never harmed the data they accessed. With the advent of new technology, cyber terrorists have deployed these new advancements to advance their political or religious agendas. Cyberterrorism has now become a serious security threat internationally. For instance, a lot of money is spent in repairing systems hacked by cyber terrorists. Cyberterrorism activities are intended to bring down vital systems to disrupt and disable the normal operation of institutions such as hospital and banks. The cyber-terrorist may deploy the use of ransomware on their attack to deny various institutions access to vital data. Ransomware an insidious type of malware that locks, or encrypts, valuable digital files. The inability to access these vital data can be catastrophic in terms disruption of regular operations, and the loss of sensitive or propriety information. There are a number of cyberterrorism instances all over the world. For example, NATO computers suffered denial-of –service attacks and email bombs during Kosovo war in 1988 (Tafoya, 2011). Web defacement against the government of United States websites by Chinese activists is another incidence of Cyberterrorism attack.

As a result of the escalation in cyberterrorism, counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal are now paramount in combating cyberterrorism since it has a latent contribution to national security. There is a number of the new set of technological and investigative capabilities and partnerships formed to combat this threat. For instance, a Cyber Division at FBI Headquarters has been formed to address cyber-crimes in a logical manner.Training of cyber squads specialists who are tasks with responsibilities of protecting and investigating an individual against theft of personal information and intellectual property, child pornography and exploitation, computer intrusions, and online fraud. Formation of new Cyber Action Teams who travel across the globe to help in cases of computer intrusion. Establishment of Computer Crime Task Forces is also another measure of combating cyberterrorism. About ninety-three Computer Crimes Tasks Forces have been formed to combat this threat. Finally, a partnership with other federal agencies is another measure taken to combat this crime. This partnership includes federal agencies such as Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense among others

In conclusion, universal definition of cyber-crime is an act of war. There are various methods deployed in cyberterrorism. First, theft of personal information is cybercrime act which may compromise personal privacy. It may also result in identity theft. Denial-of-Service through ransomware is another method of cyberterrorism. Third, data modification is also a method developed by cyber terrorist which result in a breach of information integrity. In order to prevent and minimize ransomware attack, FBI recommends that organizations should have preventive measures such as the installation of antivirus and anti-malware in their computers so as to automatically update and conduct regular scans. Another preventive measure involves patching system and application software to make it easier for centralizing patch management system. Configuring access controls in another preventive measure. Backing up data regularly and verifying the integrity of that backup is also important. Lastly, securing data backup is well important. However, incessant security research should be carried out on a daily basis in order to fully combat cyber crime since it is growing day by day.

Reference

Tafoya, W. (2011) Cyber-Terrorism, retrieved from https://leb.fbi.gov/2011/november/cyber-terror

Ashley, B. (2004). The United States is vulnerable tocyberterrorism, AFCEA. Retrieved from http://www.afcea.org/content/?q=united-states-vulnerable-cyberterrorism

Department of Defense, Terrorism definition (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/dod_dictionary/

Microsoft Corporation, Common types of network attacks (n.d.). Technet. Retrieved from https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc959354.aspx

Lohrmann, D. (2015) Cyber Terrorism: How dangerous is the ISIS cyber Caliphate threat?Government Technology, Retrieved from http://www.govtech.com/blogs/lohrmann-on-cybersecurity/Cyber-Terrorism-How-Dangerous-is-the-ISIS-Cyber-Caliphate-Threat.html

Ashley, B. (2004). The United States is vulnerable to cyberterrorism, AFCEA. Retrieved from http://www.afcea.org/content/?q=united-states-vulnerable-cyberterrorism

.