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Free
Technology Term
Paper - Cyber Terrorism
What makes cyber terrorism a
possibility is the well-established use of computers in almost
all-essential aspect of civilian life as well as armed forces
valor. If a question is asked that is it feasible, for a
terrorist to penetrate into the computers of the US, British or
Russian military and launch a nuclear missile? Although the
answer is most expectedly, “no” but being not a very forceful
no, makes it frightening. Computers control many functions. The
power plants, telephones, manufacturing of pharmaceutical
products and a million other crucial things are all operated
through computers. The computer-controlled operations include
all crucial systems that control airline traffic, perform
airline reservation and scheduling, transportation systems,
control water and oil pipelines and such. Interference in any
one of these can easily cause loss of life or widespread chaos.
The armed forces of almost all developed nations are having the
use of computers not only in their offices but also in the vital
methods of controlling the weapon delivery systems as well. The
forces are linked on the network that is always susceptible to
interceptions as a result of electronic warfare. This is a big
threat and surely the terrorists will be well aware of this
weakness. The threat of Cyber terrorism is real.
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The Internet is another major exposure where as the Internet was
designed to be highly dependable but not as highly safe. The
designers took into consideration how to keep data traffic on
the Internet flowing in spite of failures of the routing
computers and communication links that make up the network. It
was assumed that any computer connected to the Internet belonged
to a responsible governmental or commercial enterprise and not
to an unruly individual. Today the situation is much different
all the users of PCs are now one network system through
Internet. This has resulted the individuals entering on to the
sensitive sites and either collecting or destroying the vital
information, commonly knowing as hacking. The Internet permits a
computer connected to the network to send data to any other
connected computer. Hence a person with a PC connected via a
phone line, can send any type of information to a computer
running the airline reservation system. When a packet arrives at
the destination, a computer picks it up and performs some tasks
to see why the packet came there and what to do in response.
This way the viruses are being created, sent and vital
information is being destroyed. Cyber attacks can come from
locations all over the globe via the Internet the most common
form of entry into a corporate network. Cyber terrorists can
gain access to proprietary information, destroy or duplicate it,
plant viruses that would freeze business and damage e-commerce
sites and tamper with financial data, to name just a few
damaging effects.
Cyber threats to infrastructure is possible using hacker
software that can be obtained via the internet, National
Security Agency officials hacked into systems that would have
allowed them to shut down the entire United States power grid
and control elements of the U.S. Pacific Command. As if this
test could produce a worse result, only one of the several
hacker test groups was even detected and most units avoided any
attempts to trace them [Cyber Terrorism]. The lesson that must
be learned from the report is that cyber terrorism is an
imminent threat to the United States, or any other
technologically advanced country. Even nations with more
primitive technology may be adversely affected. With the
proliferation of technology increasing at an astronomical rate,
the threat of cyber terrorism will only get worse. The game has
been set, and the arena has been selected. Now, we simply wait
to see who takes the field first. [Cyber Terrorism]
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It is apparent that the correct people are taking the threat
critically. Nevertheless this is not enough to quell the
impending storm. A lot more is required to be done. A
distinction will have to be made between terrorists who make use
of available technology, being the pure cyber-terrorist and, the
traditional terrorists who may increase their armory of more
usual methods, such as bombings, hi-jacking, and murders, with
new methods such as computer viruses, Radio Frequency Weapons,
and "denial of service" attacks.
There is a need for proactive and
reactive approaches through which forensic investigation is
required to be done, to determine how the intruders gain access
into the network systems, identifying the terrorists and extent
of the damage done, protecting the systems from repetitions.
Vulnerability assessments, identifying the areas of high risk
and developing and implementing customized policies and
procedures. Besides a secret and a clandestine approach is also
to be utilized which should involve placing of some undercover
operatives into an organization to identify the same risks and
threats. Sometimes discontented employees are also a threat,
particularly during hard economic times.
Through use conventional computer technology, terrorist can also
disrupts the computer communications of major U.S. banks,
financial institutions, and stock markets. If that happens, the
economy will plunge into deep hole. Using the similar
technology, the terrorist can remotely alter the formulas for
prescription medicine at a major pharmaceutical manufacturer,
adding unsafe amounts of chemical ingredients into medicine.
This can be source reactions and over-doses, badly affecting and
killing thousands. Similarly the terrorist can also remotely
modify the pressure in suburban gas supply lines, causing
explosions. Not much has been done in these regards to protect
these vital installations.
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In reaction to sharp wakefulness of the probable cyber-terrorism
the Commission of Critical Infrastructure Protection board
established during one of their research that the amalgamation
of electricity, communications and computers are essential for
the continued survival of the U.S. because of the potent threat
to all of these services by cyber-warfare. The assets to
initiate a cyber attack are available at usual places in the
world where a computer and a connection to the Internet can
create devastation. Furthering to the problem it is also evident
that the public and private sectors are fairly uninformed of
just how much their lives depend on computers as well as the
susceptibility of those computers. Another problem related with
cyber terrorism is that the trouble must be resolved by
identifying the persons responsible for and finding out their
location from they attacked. The board recommended that vital
systems should be secluded from outer correlations or sheltered
sufficiently trough strong measures, for example developing the
best practices for use of password and protection, and use of
confined action logs. Most other government institutions and
departments have also shaped various kinds of groups to deal
with cyber-terrorists. The CIA for example created its own
group, the Information Warfare Center, staffed sufficiently with
round the clock reaction team. The FBI probes the hackers and
related cases. The Secret Service follows banking, fraud and
wiretapping cases.
Conclusion
There is so much to probe and find out about the cyber
terrorism. A lot has already been done and a lot more is to
follow. The terrorists have no boundaries and have no definite
targets and so are the cyber terrors. They can operate from
anywhere and for any type of targets they wish to choose. In
this unconventional type of warfare the attacker is always a
looser because the terrorists select the battleground of their
own choice. What we have to do is to keep on finding out the
probable targets of the cyber terrors and make the best possible
effort to remain prepared.
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