Cyber Terrorism: An Analysis of Challenges, Technologies, and Impacts

This report provides a comprehensive overview of cyber terrorism, defining it as the use of ICT and computer systems to cause disruption and fear in the cyber world. It delves into the challenges posed by cyber terrorism, including political, legal, economic, and social issues. The report also highlights the relevant technologies such as the Internet, mobile phones, and computer systems that facilitate cyber terrorist activities. Furthermore, it examines the significant impacts of cyber terrorism on various sectors, including social, economic, political, and legal aspects. The author concludes with the most important lesson: avoiding any involvement in cyber breaches or threats, as these are illegal and punishable. The report emphasizes the importance of international cooperation and the need for continuous adaptation of laws and regulations to counter cyber terrorism effectively.

Running head: CYBER TERRORISM
Cyber Terrorism
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Executive Summary
The main objective of this report is to understand the basic concept and impact of Cyber
Terrorism in the modern world. Cyber terrorism is the utilization of the information and
communications technology or ICT and computer systems to generate dangerous disruption and
severe fear in the cyber world. This has taken the entire cyber world in such a way that security
threats and risks have become extremely common in any information system. Cyber attackers
and hackers hack into the system to create this terrorism. The main aim of this report is to
provide a clear definition of cyber terrorism including the problems, challenges, relevant
technologies and several applications of these applications. The report also helps to understand
the impact of this terrorism in the cyber world.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Cyber Terrorism...........................................................................................................................3
Challenges................................................................................................................................4
Problems..................................................................................................................................4
Relevant Technologies.............................................................................................................6
Impact of Cyber Terrorism..........................................................................................................7
Most Important Lesson................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Cyber terrorism is a common word in modern world. The utilization of Internet has
provided various advantages to the society. At the same time, this Internet has also turned out to
be a terror for the society. All kinds of crime in today’s world are conducted through Internet
(Ahmad & Yunos, 2012). Cyber terrorism can be defined as the violent and cruel acts that are
conducted for threatening or harming an individual or sometimes an entire nation. This is done
by using the Internet to disrupt the networks of computer or to conduct various terrorist
activities. These are done deliberately with the intention of causing harm.
The following report outlines a brief discussion on the cyber terrorism. It provides
descriptions about the problems, challenges and relevant technologies. The report gives a brief
description about the impact of cyber terrorism in the modern world. The lesson that can be
learnt from the discussions is also mentioned here. The description is provided in the following
paragraphs.
Discussion
Cyber Terrorism
Cyber terrorism is the utilization of the information and communications technology or
ICT and computer systems to generate dangerous disruption and severe fear in the cyber world
(Hua & Bapna, 2013). The utilization of Internet has provided various advantages to the society.
At the same time, this Internet has also turned out to be a terror for the society. All kinds of
crime in today’s world are conducted through Internet (Awan & Blakemore, 2016). Cyber
terrorism can be defined as the violent and cruel acts that are conducted for threatening or

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harming an individual or sometimes an entire nation. This is caused by using the Internet. This is
done intentionally with the intention of wrong deeds.
Challenges
Cyber terrorists attack and target those systems, which are completely operated and
managed by computers (Taylor, Fritsch & Liederbach, 2014). These systems include all the
necessities of a society. The infrastructure of these systems include several utilities like the
electricity and water supplies, finance, banking, transport systems, controlling of air traffic and
many more. The other utilities that are attacked are the information technologies, supply
networks and other physical facilities. These utilities are either destroyed or degraded for a
certain period. This becomes a major challenge for the entire nation or state (Ahmad, Yunos &
Sahib, 2012). The terrorists break into the system and afterwards they take complete control of
the system. The whole nation is affected through this type of attack. The cyber terrorism is a
major challenge for all the citizens of a nation including the governing body. The major
challenges of cyber terrorism include political challenge, legal challenge, economic challenge
and social challenge. This type of terrorist attacks affects the governing body or the political
parties. The whole jurisdiction of a nation is well shaken, the moment such attacks occur. When
the facilities are disrupted or stopped by the cyber terrorists, it creates a huge impact on the
social and economic wellbeing of a nation (Awan, 2014). These challenges sometimes even turn
out to be fatal and the nation and legal bodies are not able t control them.
Problems
There are several problems and issues that are related to cyber terrorism. The problems
are as follows:

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i) Political Issue: This is the most dangerous problem of cyber terrorism. Most of the
cyber attacks take place because of the act of revenge on the political parties, acting on the nation
(Tehrani, Manap & Taji, 2013). It is seen in various cases that political parties from other
countries organize and hire cyber terrorists for attacking on any other nation.
ii) Inexpensive Infrastructure: This is another important issue in cyber terrorism. The
weak infrastructure of any system opens the way for cyber terrorism and thus is affected
severely.
iii) Simple Infrastructure: Simplicity of the infrastructure of any system is another issue
of cyber terrorism. The terrorists can easily hack this type of systems and enter into it with the
intention of terrorism (Uma & Padmavathi, 2013). The infrastructure should be made somewhat
complex so that the system cannot be hacked easily.
iv) Passwords: This is another problem for any information system. Passwords should be
present in all systems and they should be updated periodically so that there exists no loopholes of
hacking.
v) Absence of Communication System for Government: This is again one of the most
important problems of cyber terrorism. All governments should have systems for communication
and cooperation (Ahmad & Yunos, 2012). These system help in collection, distribution and
sharing of all information related to security. Moreover, they detect the situation whenever there
is a chance of cyber attack or a danger of such attacks.
vi) Lack of Adding and Revision of Legislation: Laws and regulations help a nation to
meet its goals and objectives. The government should alter and modify the laws and rule

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periodically, especially for the criminal law, so that any terrorist will think twice before
involving in cyber terrorism.
vii) Lack of International Cooperation: International cooperation helps a lot in case of
cyber terrorism (Dawson, 2015). There is a restriction for all nations to conduct their search for
terrorists. However, when they take help from international bodies, there is no limitation. Lack of
international cooperation is another problem of cyber terrorism.
Relevant Technologies
Technologies are the most important things for any progress in modern world. They have
provided several advantages to the world. However, at the same time they are the reason for
threats of security in every aspect. (Ahmad, 2012) The most important technologies that
welcome cyber terrorism in cyber world are as follows:
i) Internet: This is the most important technology in today’s world. Internet provides
everything to the world. It has made the world smaller by providing the best applications.
Similarly, in cyber terrorism, Internet is the most important technology required (Akhgar,
Staniforth & Bosco, 2014). Without Internet, the terrorists cannot do anything illegal. Everything
is controlled, operated and managed by this Internet.
ii) Mobile Phones: This is the second most important technology in modern world.
Mobile phones has brought whole world in the hands of an individual. Any body can contact
another person in fewer seconds (Eid, 2012). These phones are even used by the cyber terrorists
for their illegal acts. They hack the phones of innocent citizens and utilize their identity for
wrong deeds.

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iii) Computer Systems: Internet is either operated through mobile phones or through
several systems (Dawson, 2015). The cyber terrorists for conducting their terrorism and affecting
other people utilize this technology.
Impact of Cyber Terrorism
Cyber terrorism creates an extremely strong impact on the social, economic, political and
legal sectors of any nation. This type of terrorism affects the entire nation and all the citizens are
shaken by this kind of terrorist attack. All fields are controlled by systems. These systems
include all the necessities of a society (Jarvis, Macdonald & Whiting, 2015). The infrastructure
of these systems include several utilities like the electricity and water supplies, finance, banking,
transport systems, controlling of air traffic and many more. The other utilities that are attacked
are the information technologies, supply networks and other physical facilities. These utilities are
either destroyed or degraded for a certain period of time. The main sufferers of this type of
attacks are the citizens of the nation. The social sector of the country is affected (Bogdanoski &
Petreski, 2013). The second impact is on the economic sector. This type of terrorism mainly
affects the economic sector of the nation. In many cases, it is seen that after attacking in a bank
or organization’s website, the terrorists are demanding ransom for their act. This affects a lot on
the economic side of the country. The third impact is on the legal sector. All nations have their
own rules and regulations. Whenever, this type of attack takes place, everybody blames the
legislation of the country. The fourth impact is on the political sector of the country. Most of the
cyber attacks take place because of the act of revenge on the political parties, acting on the nation
(Bowman-Grieve, 2015). It is seen in various cases that political parties from other countries
organize and hire cyber terrorists for attacking on any other nation.

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Most Important Lesson
According to me, cyber terrorism is a dangerous crime that should be avoided and
mitigated on the highest priority. I have got the lesson that any kind of breaching of data or harm
caused to a nation is known as cyber terrorism. This has become a serious problem in modern
cyber world. I have learnt that they are several challenges and issues of cyber terrorism like
absence of legislation, lack of communication and cooperation agency and many more. I have
also learnt that various technologies are used in this type of terrorism and there is various impact
of these attacks. The most important lesson that I have learnt from the above discussions is that
nobody should be involved in any cyber breaches or threats as this is illegal and lead the person
to prison.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, cyber terrorism is one of
the most vulnerable threat for cyber world. The utilization of Internet has provided various
advantages to the society. At the same time, this Internet has also turned out to be a terror for the
society. All kinds of crime in today’s world are conducted through Internet. Cyber terrorism can
be defined as the violent and cruel acts that are conducted for threatening or harming an
individual or sometimes an entire nation. This is done by using the Internet to disrupt the
networks of computer or to conduct various terrorist activities. These are done deliberately with
the intention of causing harm. The above report provides a detailed discussion about the
challenges, problems, relevant technologies and the applications to those technologies related to
cyber terrorism. It also helps to understand the impact of this terrorism in the modern world. The
report further provides the most important lesson that can be learnt from this discussion.

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References
Ahmad, R. (2012). Perception on cyber terrorism: A focus group discussion approach. Journal of
Information Security, 2012, 3, 231-237.
Ahmad, R., & Yunos, Z. (2012). A dynamic cyber terrorism framework. International Journal of
Computer Science and Information Security, 10(2), 149.
Ahmad, R., & Yunos, Z. (2012). The application of mixed method in developing a cyber
terrorism framework. Journal of Information Security, 2012,.
Ahmad, R., Yunos, Z., & Sahib, S. (2012, June). Understanding cyber terrorism: The grounded
theory method applied. In Cyber Security, Cyber Warfare and Digital Forensic
(CyberSec), 2012 International Conference on(pp. 323-328). IEEE.
Akhgar, B., Staniforth, A., & Bosco, F. (Eds.). (2014). Cyber crime and cyber terrorism
investigator's handbook. Syngress.
Awan, I. (2014). Debating the Term Cyber-terrorism: issues and problems. Internet Journal of
Criminology. ISSN, 2045(6743), 1-14.
Awan, I., & Blakemore, B. (Eds.). (2016). Policing cyber hate, cyber threats and cyber
terrorism. Routledge.
Bogdanoski, M., & Petreski, D. (2013). Cyber terrorism–global security threat. Contemporary
Macedonian Defense-International Scientific Defense, Security and Peace
Journal, 13(24), 59-73.

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Bowman-Grieve, L. (2015). 5 Cyberterrorism and Moral Panics. Terrorism online: Politics, law
and technology, 86.
Dawson, M. (Ed.). (2015). New threats and countermeasures in digital crime and cyber
terrorism. IGI Global.
Eid, M. (2012). Cyber-terrorism and ethical journalism: A need for rationalism. In Ethical
Impact of Technological Advancements and Applications in Society(pp. 263-283). IGI
Global.
Hua, J., & Bapna, S. (2013). The economic impact of cyber terrorism. The Journal of Strategic
Information Systems, 22(2), 175-186.
Jarvis, L., Macdonald, S., & Whiting, A. (2015). Constructing cyberterrorism as a security threat:
a study of international news media coverage. Perspectives on Terrorism, 9(1).
Taylor, R. W., Fritsch, E. J., & Liederbach, J. (2014). Digital crime and digital terrorism.
Prentice Hall Press.
Tehrani, P. M., Manap, N. A., & Taji, H. (2013). Cyber terrorism challenges: The need for a
global response to a multi-jurisdictional crime. Computer Law & Security Review, 29(3),
207-215.
Uma, M., & Padmavathi, G. (2013). A Survey on Various Cyber Attacks and their
Classification. IJ Network Security, 15(5), 390-396.