Elsevier

Computer Fraud & Security

Volume 2001, Issue 11, 30 November 2001, Pages 12-14
Computer Fraud & Security

Feature
Cyber-terrorism — Virtual for Who?

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1361-3723(01)01117-4Get rights and content

Section snippets

Some ideas

The first one is called the Manchurian Printer and anyone with a whit of IT experience can see that this scenario could very easily become a reality.

What if?

Potential scenarios that cause deeper concern involve global and national information infrastructures. Could our wired world be dangling at the edge of a precipice?

Hacking into, and commandeering an air traffic control system could have a similar result to the events of 11 September without having to enlist a bunch of suicide pilots.

Telecommunications systems, rail systems, power grids, all made more vulnerable due to privatization with its resulting competition, could equally be commandeered

Specifics

Not only is the World Wide Web a bottomless pit of hacker tools, but it is also an excellent source of computer security education. The crazy thing is, it contains all the information necessary to herald its own demise. So, not only are global and national infrastructures at risk, but the very Internet itself could be a target.

The World Wide Web has particular vulnerabilities that even a modest user can take advantage of. The weaknesses lie in File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Hypertext Transfer

Encryption

In 1996 the Afghan headquarters of Osama bin Laden was furnished with computers and communications equipment, on which a network was established that utilised the Web, email and electronic bulletin boards. Hamas activists then proceeded to use chat rooms and email to plan operations and co-ordinate activities, thus bypassing the ability of Israeli security officials to intercept and decode their messages.2

On the virtuous side, human rights workers are increasingly using the Internet to organize

Brains v brawn

Although in the case of cyber-terrorism, it may not be the best minds that are required. With over 30 000 hacker-oriented sites on the Internet, you no longer need the knowledge, you just need the time and a ‘cause’ to download the tools and the programs, all readily available and easy to use. It’s the brains that are required on the potential receiving ends, bizarre as it may seem, to prevent the offending payloads. A sinister twist, as it were, in the brains against brawn scenario.

The

Hacker=terrorist?

Perhaps the move to classify hacking as a terrorist offence may scare most of them off. Do we want to wait and see, or would we rather learn from the recent past that major terrorist events or tragedies usually result in a spate of undesirable cyber activity?

The most recent example before 11 September followed the collision between a Chinese jet fighter and a US surveillance plane in April, when there were thousands of defacements of US websites. But, mere defacement pales into insignificance

Making decisions

The fact is, an oppressive regime’s understanding of the word terrorism is quite different from a democratic government’s understanding of the word.

Philip Zimmermann cites the use of Pretty Good Privacy by human rights groups to protect them from what we would perceive as the real yoke of terrorism they live under. None of us living in our comfortable democracies could deny them this level of protection in their fight for justice.

Our own democratic understanding of the word terrorism is

Hoaxes

Just as virus hoaxes stimulate unnecessary anxieties, so too do online hoaxes following major tragedies. These are merely other aspects of cyber-terrorism and should be dismissed as vehemently as website defacements and cyber-terrorism in its more accepted form.

People who never heard of Nostradamus before 11 September, are now frantically studying his writings for other ‘signs’, while those sympathetic to the more fundamentalist side of Christianity must be alarmed by claims that Satan’s face

Protection

Computing professionals all over the world now need to be aware, more than ever before, of the whole gamut of vulnerabilities providing open doors or back doors to cyber terrorism. This increased awareness is necessary in order to better protect the world’s computer systems and possibly help put an end to terrorist activity by killing this particular lifeline. Vulnerability scanners will, I think become more widespread, as system administrators will no longer feel comfortable with never having

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References (4)

  • The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace — a history of space from Dante to the Internet, Margaret Wertheim, Virago,...
  • “Activism, Hactivism, and Cyber- terrorism: The Internet as a Tool for Influencing Foreign Policy”, Dorothy...
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