"Organizations wit
h
sloppy server monitors are often 'zombied'"
-- or taken over remotely -- "for jihadist
purposes," explained Frank Preston, a
researcher at the University of Wisconsin
who works with a team studying media use in
terrorist cell group formation. "E-jihadists,"
as he calls them, then use these zombie
servers to host their training manual.
There's no denying that the Internet has changed the world for both good and bad, but few elements of its dark side inspire more fear than its use by terrorists. Observers around the world were horrified when a video of the 2002 beheading of American journalist Daniel Pearl was disseminated on the Web, and other gruesome images have followed. It may not always be clear where such communications originate, but one thing has become certain: Terrorist organizations are making full use of the Internet today. "All the capabilities and advantages the Internet provides for businesses and individuals are equally attractive for terrorist organizations and criminals of every kind," Herbert Strauss, research vice president at Gartner (NYSE: IT) focusing on national security , told TechNewsWorld. "Even more disconcerting is that the level of sophistication among terrorist organizations is increasing," he added.
Terrorist
groups can access global information
infrastructures owned and operated by the
governments and corporations they want to
target. Digital attackers have a wide
variety of means to cause disruption and/or
destruction. Response in kind by the US
government against sophisticated attackers
is near impossible due to the difficulty of
pinpointing activity in cyberspace and legal
strictures on tracing attackers."
As early as 1996 renowned historian and
terror expert Walter Laquer wrote, "Why
assassinate a politician or indiscriminately
kill people when an attack on electronic
switching will produce far more dramatic and
long-lasting results?" There is little doubt
that the means to generate a digital attack
continue to become more developed, meaning
that the US will be more vulnerable to
cyber-terrorism. Terrorists using
cyber-terrorism have already reached a high
degree of sophistication, developing
technological attack tools and effective
targeting strategies. On the other hand,
Rattray points out that "limits to hitting
back against cyber-terrorism will remain a
difficult problem."