Definition of Cyber Terrorism

Question:

Discuss About The Provided Various Advantages To The Society?

Cyber terrorism is a common word in modern world. The utilization of Internet has provided various advantages to the society. At the same time, this Internet has also turned out to be a terror for the society. All kinds of crime in today’s world are conducted through Internet (Ahmad & Yunos, 2012). Cyber terrorism can be defined as the violent and cruel acts that are conducted for threatening or harming an individual or sometimes an entire nation. This is done by using the Internet to disrupt the networks of computer or to conduct various terrorist activities. These are done deliberately with the intention of causing harm.

The following report outlines a brief discussion on the cyber terrorism. It provides descriptions about the problems, challenges and relevant technologies. The report gives a brief description about the impact of cyber terrorism in the modern world. The lesson that can be learnt from the discussions is also mentioned here. The description is provided in the following paragraphs.

Cyber terrorism is the utilization of the information and communications technology or ICT and computer systems to generate dangerous disruption and severe fear in the cyber world (Hua & Bapna, 2013). The utilization of Internet has provided various advantages to the society. At the same time, this Internet has also turned out to be a terror for the society. All kinds of crime in today’s world are conducted through Internet (Awan & Blakemore, 2016). Cyber terrorism can be defined as the violent and cruel acts that are conducted for threatening or harming an individual or sometimes an entire nation. This is caused by using the Internet. This is done intentionally with the intention of wrong deeds.

Cyber terrorists attack and target those systems, which are completely operated and managed by computers (Taylor, Fritsch & Liederbach, 2014). These systems include all the necessities of a society. The infrastructure of these systems include several utilities like the electricity and water supplies, finance, banking, transport systems, controlling of air traffic and many more. The other utilities that are attacked are the information technologies, supply networks and other physical facilities. These utilities are either destroyed or degraded for a certain period. This becomes a major challenge for the entire nation or state (Ahmad, Yunos & Sahib, 2012). The terrorists break into the system and afterwards they take complete control of the system. The whole nation is affected through this type of attack. The cyber terrorism is a major challenge for all the citizens of a nation including the governing body. The major challenges of cyber terrorism include political challenge, legal challenge, economic challenge and social challenge. This type of terrorist attacks affects the governing body or the political parties. The whole jurisdiction of a nation is well shaken, the moment such attacks occur. When the facilities are disrupted or stopped by the cyber terrorists, it creates a huge impact on the social and economic wellbeing of a nation (Awan, 2014). These challenges sometimes even turn out to be fatal and the nation and legal bodies are not able t control them.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet

There are several problems and issues that are related to cyber terrorism. The problems are as follows:

1. Political Issue: This is the most dangerous problem of cyber terrorism. Most of the cyber attacks take place because of the act of revenge on the political parties, acting on the nation (Tehrani, Manap & Taji, 2013). It is seen in various cases that political parties from other countries organize and hire cyber terrorists for attacking on any other nation.
2. Inexpensive Infrastructure: This is another important issue in cyber terrorism. The weak infrastructure of any system opens the way for cyber terrorism and thus is affected severely.

Simple Infrastructure: Simplicity of the infrastructure of any system is another issue of cyber terrorism. The terrorists can easily hack this type of systems and enter into it with the intention of terrorism (Uma & Padmavathi, 2013). The infrastructure should be made somewhat complex so that the system cannot be hacked easily.

1. Passwords: This is another problem for any information system. Passwords should be present in all systems and they should be updated periodically so that there exists no loopholes of hacking.
2.  Absence of Communication System for Government: This is again one of the most important problems of cyber terrorism. All governments should have systems for communication and cooperation (Ahmad & Yunos, 2012). These system help in collection, distribution and sharing of all information related to security. Moreover, they detect the situation whenever there is a chance of cyber attack or a danger of such attacks.
3.  Lack of Adding and Revision of Legislation: Laws and regulations help a nation to meet its goals and objectives. The government should alter and modify the laws and rule periodically, especially for the criminal law, so that any terrorist will think twice before involving in cyber terrorism.

Lack of International Cooperation: International cooperation helps a lot in case of cyber terrorism (Dawson, 2015). There is a restriction for all nations to conduct their search for terrorists. However, when they take help from international bodies, there is no limitation. Lack of international cooperation is another problem of cyber terrorism.

Technologies are the most important things for any progress in modern world. They have provided several advantages to the world. However, at the same time they are the reason for threats of security in every aspect. (Ahmad, 2012) The most important technologies that welcome cyber terrorism in cyber world are as follows:

1. i) Internet: This is the most important technology in today’s world. Internet provides everything to the world. It has made the world smaller by providing the best applications. Similarly, in cyber terrorism, Internet is the most important technology required (Akhgar, Staniforth & Bosco, 2014). Without Internet, the terrorists cannot do anything illegal. Everything is controlled, operated and managed by this Internet.
2. ii) Mobile Phones: This is the second most important technology in modern world. Mobile phones has brought whole world in the hands of an individual. Any body can contact another person in fewer seconds (Eid, 2012). These phones are even used by the cyber terrorists for their illegal acts. They hack the phones of innocent citizens and utilize their identity for wrong deeds.

Computer Systems:  Internet is either operated through mobile phones or through several systems (Dawson, 2015). The cyber terrorists for conducting their terrorism and affecting other people utilize this technology.

Cyber terrorism creates an extremely strong impact on the social, economic, political and legal sectors of any nation. This type of terrorism affects the entire nation and all the citizens are shaken by this kind of terrorist attack. All fields are controlled by systems. These systems include all the necessities of a society (Jarvis, Macdonald & Whiting, 2015). The infrastructure of these systems include several utilities like the electricity and water supplies, finance, banking, transport systems, controlling of air traffic and many more. The other utilities that are attacked are the information technologies, supply networks and other physical facilities. These utilities are either destroyed or degraded for a certain period of time. The main sufferers of this type of attacks are the citizens of the nation. The social sector of the country is affected (Bogdanoski & Petreski, 2013). The second impact is on the economic sector. This type of terrorism mainly affects the economic sector of the nation. In many cases, it is seen that after attacking in a bank or organization’s website, the terrorists are demanding ransom for their act. This affects a lot on the economic side of the country. The third impact is on the legal sector. All nations have their own rules and regulations. Whenever, this type of attack takes place, everybody blames the legislation of the country. The fourth impact is on the political sector of the country. Most of the cyber attacks take place because of the act of revenge on the political parties, acting on the nation (Bowman-Grieve, 2015). It is seen in various cases that political parties from other countries organize and hire cyber terrorists for attacking on any other nation.

Impact of Cyber Terrorism

According to me, cyber terrorism is a dangerous crime that should be avoided and mitigated on the highest priority. I have got the lesson that any kind of breaching of data or harm caused to a nation is known as cyber terrorism. This has become a serious problem in modern cyber world. I have learnt that they are several challenges and issues of cyber terrorism like absence of legislation, lack of communication and cooperation agency and many more. I have also learnt that various technologies are used in this type of terrorism and there is various impact of these attacks. The most important lesson that I have learnt from the above discussions is that nobody should be involved in any cyber breaches or threats as this is illegal and lead the person to prison.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, cyber terrorism is one of the most vulnerable threat for cyber world. The utilization of Internet has provided various advantages to the society. At the same time, this Internet has also turned out to be a terror for the society. All kinds of crime in today’s world are conducted through Internet. Cyber terrorism can be defined as the violent and cruel acts that are conducted for threatening or harming an individual or sometimes an entire nation. This is done by using the Internet to disrupt the networks of computer or to conduct various terrorist activities. These are done deliberately with the intention of causing harm. The above report provides a detailed discussion about the challenges, problems, relevant technologies and the applications to those technologies related to cyber terrorism. It also helps to understand the impact of this terrorism in the modern world. The report further provides the most important lesson that can be learnt from this discussion.

References

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Hua, J., & Bapna, S. (2013). The economic impact of cyber terrorism. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 22(2), 175-186.

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Taylor, R. W., Fritsch, E. J., & Liederbach, J. (2014). Digital crime and digital terrorism. Prentice Hall Press.

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Uma, M., & Padmavathi, G. (2013). A Survey on Various Cyber Attacks and their Classification. IJ Network Security, 15(5), 390-396.