Cyber Terrorism

Despite lighter physical and border security, terrorism has been a complex problem faced by the Governments and the policy makers. With the emergence of new communication technologies, the nature and mode of operation of terrorism has undergone a radical change giving rise to a new variety of terrorism called as cyber- terrorism.

According to U.S. National Infra-structure Protection Center, cyber terrorism is defined as “a criminal act perpetrated by the use of computer and telecommunication 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 population to conform to a particular political, social or ideological agenda.”

Thus, cyber terrorism may be said to be a convergence of terrorism and cyber space involving unlawful attacks or threats of attacks against computers, networks and the information stored therein, in order to coerce or intimidate a government or its people in furtherance of political, social or ideological objectives.

Cyber terrorism is resorted to either by attacking the critical infra-structure via cyber attacks or by misusing the internet.

Cyber terrorism has domestic as well as international ramifications. It may be defined as the premeditated use of disruptive activities or the threat thereof, in cyber space, with the intention to further social, ideological, religious, political or similar objectives, or to intimidate any person in furtherance of such objectives. A ‘cyber terrorist’ may be defined as a person who uses computer system as a means to achieve any of the following objectives:—

(i) Putting the public or any section of the public in fear; or

(ii) Affecting adversely the harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities; or

(iii) Coercing or overawing the government established by law; or

(iv) Endangering the sovereignty and integrity of the nation.

Every act done in pursuance of the above objectives will be an act of cyber terrorism.

It hardly needs to be stressed that inter-connectivity of national networks into a single world wide web is being misused by the cyber terrorists for pursuing their terrorist activities with impunity. Therefore, international cooperation to combat cyber terrorism and misuse of internet by terrorist is the urgent need of the time.

The members of the United Nations have expressed their concern about the threat of cyber crimes, particularly the cyber terrorism and suggested updating the national cyber forensic systems and legal framework to combat the menace. There is need to develop new strategies and new national and international policies for effective response to cyber terrorism.

Generating a ‘global consensus’ and establishing effective bilateral and multilateral cooperation among nations would be helpful in promoting information and network security which would be an effective tool for prevention of cyber terrorism.