Digital Violence as a Terrorist Risk in Australia - Essay Example

But a new form of terrorism evolutes through the emerging technology, which has been intimidating the world through its malicious effects, finally took the form of “Cyber terrorism”. Cyber terrorism can result in the following event "Unlike a nuisance virus or computer attack that results in denial of service, a cyberterrorist attack would lead to physical violence or extreme financial harm. According to the US Commission of Critical Infrastructure Protection, possible cyberterrorism targets include the banking industry, military installations, power plants, air traffic control centers, and water systems" (Randall W. Rice).

Cyber terrorism is considered more dangerous these days, than human terrorism and the potential danger that it poses has more risk and can wreak more havoc than human terrorism. Cyber terrorism mainly targets the entire system of computers and servers of the nations, which hold the key information of their economy, defense, and other important strategies, and a direct attack on these systems by the hackers could bring ineffable jeopardy to the nations and thereby to the world.

Many countries have been the victims of this malevolent practice, adopted by hackers. The United States of America, Australia, the United Kingdom, India, China, Russia, and many other nations have complained about this peril both from domestic and foreign hackers. With emerging technology, governments have been relying more on computers, and their reliability is now taken advantage of. The hackers are doing their part and intrusions have been identified lately in recent times with the loss of important data, by one of the largest democratic countries of the world, India. “According to a study, in 2009 Indian enterprises lost Rs 58 lakh due to cyber attacks. This is set to increase further if companies do not take appropriate measures to protect themselves from various threats that lead to not just financial setbacks but also loss of crucial data” (TOI).

Cyber terrorism has been intimidating many Nations and the threats posed by cyber terrorism are the main cause for this panic. The main threats are that many developed nations of the world rely on computers for their functioning and breaching these systems would lead to loss of vital data which in turn can affect the critical infrastructure of that nation. Australia has been one of the major countries that have been identified as vulnerable nations to cyber terrorism, along with the USA, China, the UK, and other nations. Recent incidents in Australia suggest that organizations like Banks, Financial institutes, Stock markets, Private and Public firms, have all been listed as cyber terrorism-prone firms and organizations. “Recent system failures involving Virgin Blue, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and the Australian stock exchange highlight the widespread inconvenience and enormous cost associated with such incidents” (AUSTRALIAN IT).

Australia has been warned by the US, about cyber terrorism as an emerging threat to the nation, as many people in Australia depend on computers and the Internet to proceed with their routine, and also the security of the sensitive government issues could be at stake. “Cyber-terrorism has been identified as an emerging threat by a US terrorism expert visiting Australia.