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Are Cyber Threats the New Terrorism Frontier?

by Daniel D. Brecht, IT Freelance Writer

Today, we live in a high-tech world of uncertainty. The more we become dependent upon
technology in our everyday lives, the more threats are developed. The perception for end users
is that the Internet is no longer a safe and secure avenue for research and development, to
communicate, find information, send/receive email, engage in file sharing, conduct online chat
and collaboration.

The Internet has unfortunately been a playground for cybercriminals who employ increasingly
sophisticated methods to carry out their agenda. Newly emergent attacks have become more
frequent, dangerous and complex these days; this is shown by the upswing in hacking incidents
targeting the US financial system as well as government agencies.

The rise of security threats also involves, increasingly, the Internet of Things. Physical systems
that interface with digital networks are vulnerable to online cyber-criminals who look to turn a
connection-oriented machine into a possible threat against intended targets.

An interesting trend, however, relates sudden increases in threats to political events. The rise of
threats against financial systems in the US, such as the theft of gigabytes of data from
JPMorgan Chase’s system, coincided, for example, with the escalation of tensions between
Russia and the US over the crisis in the Ukraine. Was this just a coincidence?
Given the number of high-profile cybersecurity incidents, IT/IS experts say the level of
sophistication of targeted attacks suggests that cyber-based terrorist threats are becoming more
real; cyber-terrorism may become a critical element in people’s lives over the next decade. It is
believed that the risk of cyber-terrorist attacks is likely to exceed the danger posed by current
terrorist networks.

Cyberterrorism: how real is the threat?

Although real cyber terrorism attacks have not been launched in full scale yet, a number of
incidents have demonstrated the potentially devastating effects of concerted large scale strikes.
The fact that many attacks seem to be directly related to political objectives highlights the
increasing interest of terrorists for the digital world, and for a good reason.

While conventional attacks, in fact, are carried out necessarily on the spot and represent a risk
for those who perpetrate them (think about the use of kamikaze for example), cyber-attacks are
potentially risk-free as they can be carried out from anywhere, against any target.

Effects can be even more devastating than traditional attacks as the target is not necessarily a
single group of people, a building, a city, but can actually be an entire infrastructures and

28 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – December 2014 Edition
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