Terrorism on the Internet - Essay Example

Terrorism on the Internet ment of the problem: The attack on the World Trade Center was one where terrorists wreaked an unprecedented level ofdestruction and the attention of the world was drawn sharply to the dangers posed by the terrorist threat. Sterne (2003) defines terrorism as “as an act or threat of violence against noncombatants with the objective of exacting revenge, intimidating, or otherwise influencing an audience.” Over the years, the face of terrorism has changed – it is no longer restricted to state sponsored terrorism, but has evolved into specialized local cells, with individual terrorist elements spreading threat in order to achieve their own selfish political or other ends. Sterne clarifies that in this context, terrorism is not the kind of enemy that can be combated on an all out open combat basis. She defines terrorism as “a kind of virus, which spreads as a result of risk factors at various levels: global, interstate, national and personal."[www.buzzflash.com]. With increasing globalization, the use of the Internet has widened to encompass a new sphere of activities that are facilitated through the electronic medium{Kusher 1998). It is now possible to achieve on an individual basis, a scope of activity that would have previously necessitated the availability of a vast amount of resources and several people. But through the cheap electronic medium, it has become possible for computer savvy individuals to engage in several criminal and terrorist activities that are characterized by the compromising of sensitive information and by large scale destruction. Since most commercial and Government activity has now become e-based, terrorists can cause a great deal of damage by hacking into the databases of Government organizations. Hoffman (1998) identifies this as the “new” terrorism, wherein state backed terrorism is waning, yielding to a widening spectrum of terrorist activity which is transnational, seeks out civilian targets and may not necessarily be driven by the achievement of political goals. Arquilla and Ronfeldt(1996) categorize the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to influence, modify or disrupt a state or its population through the use of the media and by subversion as “netwar”. Netwar involves combat with an unseen enemy, who often remains anonymous in the e-maze of the Internet, is at an unspecific geographic location that cannot be determined through the electronic medium and may not be organized in the tradiitonal hierarchical framework which law enforcement agencies are familiar with, so that the focus of the attack becomes indeterminate. In recognition of the importance of monitoring the electronic medium to organize pre-emptive measures against terrorist attacks, the U.S. Patriot Act of 2001 has expanded the scope of criminal surveillance activity to detect potential terrorist threats. For example, Section 216 of the Act enables the use of “pen register” and “trap and trace” devices to monitor the content of communications when deemed necessary. Enhanced surveillance measures have also been introduced as far as wireless and Internet communications are concerned. Section 201 authorizes wire tap surveillance of communications in the case of suspicion of possession of chemical weapons, while Section 202 has an enhanced list of violations which will now be construed as felonies under section 1030, where any kind of attempt at unauthorized access to a Government computer will also be included. Section 103 also introduces much more wide ranging measures that permit the disclosure of information that is secured through wire tap surveillance to all Government, federal and criminal investigation authorities (www.epic.org, n.d.) Efforts are being made on a worldwide basis to combat cyber terrorism. E-communications are periodically monitored and decoded in order to gain access to terrorist networks and their future plans. But while several electronic measures are being implemented, is this adequate, in view of the threat that has been identified? Research Objectives: The aim of this research study is to examine terrorist activity over the Internet and the response of the Governments to the problem posed by cyber crime, in order to arrive at a better understanding of e-terrorism and how to combat it. This research study will closely examine the current methods that are currently being utilized by the Government to combat e-threats and assess their efficacy. Are the current law enforcement measures adequate to combat the problem of e-terrorism? This is the research question that is being posed in this Paper. A comparison will be made of the existing developments in terrorism vis a vis the measures that are currently in operation. The major thrust of this research effort is to arrive at an answer to the question of adequacy of current law enforcement measures, in order to emphasize what we, as citizens, can do on an individual basis to help the Governments in their fight against terrorism. Literature Review: Terrorism has become the most pressing problem in the world today, The “war on terror” is the highest on the agenda of the United States. One facility offered by the Internet includes fast access to information. It is possible for terrorist elements to reach thousands of people across the globe within a very short time frame by using a website. Additionally, such widespread communication is much cheaper than using the traditional modes of communication such as the post or the telephone. Therefore it is possible for an individual or group of individuals to cheaply and effectively reach out to millions of people. But the biggest advantage offered by the Net is the relative anonymity and the facility of secret communication as articulated by a pro-Nazi net user; “all my comrades and I, none of whom I have ever met face to face, share a unique camaraderie…..irrespective of nation identity or state borders.” (Kleim 1995) As a result of enhanced communications, the terrorists have not been able to establish a worldwide network which include all radical elements. According to Michael Whine (1999) many far right groups are using the medium of the Internet to establish communications with other pro fascist elements across the globe in order to strengthen their campaign of hate against non whites and oppose the policy of majority Governments that are more centrist and liberal in their outlook towards all races. According to the Simon Weisenthal Center in Los Angeles where websites are constantly being monitored, there are about 51 websites currently in existence which openly advocate terrorism and have chosen to set up their sites outside the United States to avoid prosecution (Hate crimes, 1998). In a similar manner, Islamic fundamentalist groups are also creating a large network of fundamentalist Muslims all across the globe through the development of a common network using the Internet. The dangers are most potent in the United States, where the open nature of the society and increasing sophistication of the domestic users is posing a serious threat to security systems all over the country and making sensitive information vulnerable to attack. According to a report (1997) released by the President’s Commission for critical infrastructure protection, “A personal computer and a simple telephone connection to an Internet Service Provider anywhere in the world are enough to cause a great deal of harm.” The reason for this threat lies in the fact that since almost all systems are electronically controlled, therefore access to a nuclear station’s control computer could produce results just as devastating as that which was previously conceived of by the use of a bomb. The facility for secret communications and recruitment of volunteers is almost limitless. When the terrorist structure was rigid and organized on the basis of a hierarchical framework, it was easier to discover the leaders and decimate the center of command, thereby rendering the rest of the organization almost helpless. However through the use of the Internet, a more diffused, decentralized network is in place, which is difficult to penetrate and the locus of leadership is difficult to determine and exterminate. According to Michael Whine (1999), cyberspace allows for both internal and external networking and news travels fast over electronic waves, allowing for collaboration between individual groups through the use of encryption techniques to avoid detection. He illustrates this through the example of Ramzi Ahmed Yusuf, who worked out plans to bomb American Airlines over the pacific on his tiny laptop and later transferred the same plans for use in the bombing of the World Trade Center. Islamic terrorists in particular, pose a potent threat to Western nations because they are scattered all over the world, living safely within democracies and extending their sympathy and support to the Jihadi cause of Islamic terrorism through the Internet and e-communication. The jihadi is termed as a religious warrior and he considers all non Muslims as infidels who must be either converted to Islam or warred against, thereby involving the use of violence in some form. Terrorist attacks are planned and coordinated using the world wide web. Jihad is a religious philosophy that recognizes no territorial borders, it encompasses the entire Muslim community over the globe(White 1999). Religion functions as a cover for terrorist messages and strategic commands to attack are often cloaked in elaborate religious jargon which is unintelligible to the ordinary listener but easily discerned by the Muslim jihadi, who responds to the clarion call to battle and launches attacks on sensitive posts and strategic Government centers. The cyber medium not only functions as a means for relaying commands to attack enemy posts in encrypted messages, it also functions directly as an agent of terror. Hackers are able to tap into secret Government sites and access sensitive information. A great deal of sensitive and confidential information is exchanged over the electronic airwaves, which could compromise security of a country’s citizens if they are leaked out or get into the wrong hands. Terrorists can even resort to uploading harmful viruses into Government websites and access systems, thereby freezing the flow of information and paralyzing operations. Viruses appear as “worms” or “bugs” which penetrate a system and spread very fast, reaching out and infecting all other users and applications of a particular system or program. Most viruses spread through e-mail attachments (Paz, 2002). Some of the viruses are malicious in that they contain instructions for files and applications to be destroyed, which can cause data to be corrupted or lost forever by being destroyed or deleted. Most of the viruses are also programmed to turn themselves on when the system is booted, so that it becomes difficult to get rid of them even by shutting off the computer (Paz, 2002). Thus, the electronic medium can be used to generate activities that could cause large scale losses and interfere with effective functioning of Government operations. Terrorists now have access to a variety of Cyber weapons such as Radio Frequency Weapons, TEDs, RF munitions, TEMPEST monitoring devices and electromagnetic bombs in addition to the uploading of malicious viruses.(Cyberterrorism, 2002). Through the use of such weapons, terrorists are able to attack enemy targets that are far away from a strategic computer terminal. The attack is difficult to detect and the source cannot be easily pinpointed. Moreover, in some instances systems may be compromised and their security threatened by hackers gaining access into the system, without the user being aware that his system has been attacked, thereby compromising confidential communication and sensitive information. By hacking into the access codes for control of weapons and missile systems, or for access into locations such as the World Trade Center, terrorists can create hovoc – long distance and unidentified. Therefore, terrorist activity over the Internet poses the potent threat of a faceless, untraceable enemy who can attack anytime, anywhere without any prior indications. This is the bottom line that spells out the success of cyber attacks. The ultimate purpose of a terrorist attack is to generate fear in the mind of the victim. The cyber medium is therefore uniquely suited to generate such terror through the threat of an unseen, unanticipated attack from a faceless enemy. Various regulatory mechanisms are being used by the Government in order to put some stops on unfettered, harmful Internet activity. Workplace surveillance has been introduced in many corporations in order to gain access to e-mails sent by employees, which could be related to terrorist activity. However this has given rise to the issue of invasion of privacy of the employees. According to Andrew Murray, “people have come to regard e-mail and the Internet as their private space. If they feel someone is violating this space, even legally, its bound to create friction.” [Conry-Murray, 2001]. This the foremost and most important reason for rejecting the concept of workplace surveillance. “Privacy is a guaranteed human right -- at home and at work” and “workplace monitoring is an unnecessary infringement on that right.” [Zimmerman, 2002, pp 38-45]. This poses a particularly difficult problem, since individual privacy that is guaranteed by the Constitution may be misused by some individuals to sponsor and promote terrorist activity over the Net with automatic protection being accorded by the Constitutional right to privacy. Proposed research method: The purpose of this research effort is to assess whether security systems and online monitoring measures currently in use are adequate to counter the threat of cyber terrorism. This assessment is proposed to be made through an exhaustive review of the literature and by researching into latest news items in order to determine how often terrorists have successfully carried out attacks in the last three years since the attack on the World Trade Center. This study will compare the measures that are being implemented by the Government and by other agencies to ensure safety and confidentiality of the information that is provided over their websites vis a vis the incidence of successful attacks. The percentage of successful attacks which will be taken into account are those that have successfully managed to impede the effective functioning of Government or public organizations and have successfully generated terror in the minds of the recipients. This research study is not an ethnographic approach since the phenomenon of cyber terrorism is a recent one. Rather it attempts a comparison of terrorist activity over the past few years from publicly available sources with the known information about protective measures that are being used by Government and security agencies for preserving confidentiality of data and information. However, in order to supplement the information amassed from the literature review, it is also proposed that a limited survey will be carried out among a section of the public in order to determine, to the extent possible, how many of them have opened up a racist or terrorist website and how many of them have been influenced by a racist or terrorist website. This would help to further supplement the results obtained from the literature review on the effectiveness and outreach of cyber terrorism and the functioning of its agents. For the supplementary research purposes, a brief sample questionnaire will be prepared in which some questions will be posed requiring simple answers or in most cases, ticking of a “Yes” or “No” box. A random sample of the population, numbering at least 300 respondents will be contacted through email or by post, or personal contact at supermarkets and other places where the public gathers. They will be asked whether they would like to participate in a sample survey of web viewing habits. At least 200 to 250 participants will form the base for this research study. Participation will be strictly voluntary and each participant will be assured that their responses will be kept strictly confidential and their identity will not be divulged. The Questionnaire will comprise questions such as: (a) How much time do you spend surfing the Internet everyday? (b) Do you log into religious or racist websites? (c) Do you feel any affinity for any particular site? (d) Which are the web sites you visit most frequently and why? (e) Are you a member of any privately operated website? (f) What attracts you about the message being given by the website? (g) How truthful would you say the messages in the website are? (h) Does the information on the website (i) affect you strongly (ii) affect you slightly (iii) indifferent (iv) does not affect me at all (i) Do you post your own message onto the website? (j) Do you feel a sense of affinity and kinship with other users on the website? (k) Are you aware of the identity of those who use the website? The responses generated from these questionnaires will be used to gain a comparative idea of how many people log into websites that are geared towards influencing their users and how strongly , if at all, they are influenced by the messages that they receive on the website. Probable nature and form of results: It is estimated that the literature review will reveal that terrorists have been making considerable headway in their destructive agenda. There is likely to be a great deal of activity revealed on the Government front as well, in measures to combat terrorism, however since the diffused, decentralized terrorist networks created by electronic networking are difficult to detect, it is likely that terrorist activity would have gained an edge in spite of Government and security agency surveillance. The researcher is hopeful that patterns will also emerge from the survey of Internet users, which may divulge how effective the electronic medium has been in terms of spreading terrorist messages and furthering the terrorist agenda. The results of the questionnaire will be collated on the basis of the responses, into categories that will spell out those who are using the Internet strictly for their study or work purposes as compared to those who use the Internet to access websites that disseminate hate propaganda. Limitations of the research study: There are some limitations identified in this research study. One of them is the fact that much of the kind of information that this study seeks to gather is not likely to be easily available. In order to make an accurate assessment of the degree to which cyber terrorism has been successful, it is first necessary to be able to have access to instances where some disruption has been caused successfully through terrorist tampering. However, it is not likely that all such information will either be released to the public or be available for public use. Another limitation that arises in this case is the veracity of the supplementary information that may be collected through the questionnaire survey method. There is every likelihood that those who are secretly members of a terrorist network or are strongly influenced by or support a terrorist type organization will not reveal their affinity for the messages that are being propagated, since much of the communication between terrorists and like minded individuals is of a secretive nature and there may be fears of action being taken against them through the revealing of their role. Therefore this results of this study at best, will permit some general conclusions to be made and to support and corroborate the existing pool of information on cyber terrorism. Facilities and resources needed: This research study may take up a considerable amount of time, since a great deal of information will have to be sifted through, including news stories on terrorist attacks in order to be able to make any kind of assumptions or draw up hypotheses. Moreover, the supplementary research may also involve three to four months of time as people are contacted, their participation solicited and their responses obtained. Additionally, questionnaires will have to be printed since they are being produced in large numbers, so access to printing facilities will be needed. Preliminary workplan: The first step in this process will be geared towards the preparation of questionnaires to support the supplementary research process. Once these questionnaires have been prepared, respondents will be actively solicited and completed questionnaires will be obtained. Simultaneously, the researcher proposes to work on the research of this issue and pull up as much information as possible on terrorist activity and measures being implemented by security agencies and regulatory agencies for policing on the net. This is estimated to take up a period of three to four months. The next stage of the plan will be to collate all the information that is collected and organize it, in order to extract the most relevant information that is pertinent in terms of answering the research question. The questionnaires will be collated by organizing the responses into categories. These responses will be indexed separately so that responses from one participant that fit into more than category can be slotted accordingly, so that an evaluation can be made based upon a particular criterion – such as for example, those strongly influenced by web content. Such collation of responses will help to extract relevant and meaningful information about the participants affinity for propaganda websites. Works Cited: * Arquilla, John and Ronfeldt, David, 1996. The Advent of Netwar, RAND for the Office of the Secretary of Defence, CA, USA. * BuzzFlash Interview (May 4, 2004): Jessica Sterne: Terror in the name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill: [Online] Available at: http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/04/05/int04024.html * Conry-Murray, Andrew (2001): Special report – the Pros and Cons of Employee surveillance, Network Magazine, retrieved from URL: http://www.networkmagazine.com/shared/article/showArticle.jhtml?articleId =8703003&classroom= > on October 18, 2005. * “Cyberterrorism. (2002). [Online] Available at: http://ntrg.cs.tcd.ie/undergrad/4ba2.02/infowar/terrorism.html * Hate Crime on the Internet (1998), International Police Review, January/February: p28 * Hoffman, Bruce (1998): Inside Terrorism. London: Victor Gollancz, * Kleim, M. J. Jnr, On Tactics and Strategy for USENET ,(1995), bb748@FreeNet. Carlton. CA * Kushner, Harvey, W. (1998). The Future of Terrorism: Violence in the New Millenium. London: Sage Paz, Uzi. (2002). “Defense against viruses: Awareness by examples” http://www.geocities.com/uzipaz/eng/virusbyexample.html Presidents Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (1997). Report Summary, Page 3, 13. [Online] Available at: http://www.pecip.gov/summary.html Stern, Jessica ( 2003 ) “Terror in the name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill” Ecco, Harper Collins Publishers “The USA Patriot Act”: Accessed 09/14/2005 from URL: http://www.epic.org/privacy/terrorism/usapatriot/ Whine, Michael, 1999. “The use of the Internet by far right extremists” [Online] Available at: http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=413 Whine, Michael. (1999) “Cyberspace” [Online] Available at http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=76 * Zimmerman, Eileen (2002): HR must know when employee surveillance cross the line, Workforce, February 2002, pp. 38-45 Read More