Cyberterrorism

Cyberterrorism is the use of the Internet to conduct violent acts that result in or threaten the loss of life or significant bodily harm in order to achieve political gains through intimidation. It is also sometimes considered the act of Internet terrorism in terrorist activities, including acts of deliberate, large-scale disruption of computer networks, especially of personal computers attached to the Internet, by the means of tools such as computer viruses.

Cyberterrorism is a controversial term. Some authors choose a very narrow definition, relating to deployments, by known terrorist organizations, of disruption attacks against information systems for the primary purpose of creating alarm and panic. Some other authors choose a much too broad definition which tends to falsely include cybercrime when in reality, cyberterrorism and cybercrime are two very different issues and must be defined separately. Terrorism online should be considered cyberterrorism when there has been fear inflicted on a group of people, whereas cybercrime is the act of committing a felony or crime online typically without the use of fear. By these narrow and broad definitions, it is difficult to identify which instances of online terrorism are cyberterrorism or cybercrime.

Cyberterrorism can be also defined as the intentional use of computer, networks, and public internet to cause destruction and harm for personal objectives. Experienced cyberterrorists who are very skilled in terms of hacking can deal massive damage to government systems, hospital records, and national security programs, often which leaves a country in turmoil and in fear of further attacks. The objectives of such terrorists may be political or ideological since this can be seen as a form of terrorism.

There is much concern from government and media sources about potential damages that could be caused by cyberterrorism, and this has prompted efforts by government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) 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 cyberterror in April, 2007 after disputes regarding the removal of a WWII soviet statue located Estonia's capital Tallinn.

There is debate over the basic definition of the scope of cyberterrorism. There is variation in qualification by motivation, targets, methods, and centrality of computer use in the act. 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.

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