Does 'cyber terrorism' exist?

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 26 October 2010 09:43

Business IT - Security

The term 'cyber terrorism' gets bandied about, but does it really exist?

While the Internet is used by terrorist and terrorist-related groups for communication, spreading propaganda, raising money, information gathering, and target selection, it has so far not been used for actual terrorist activities involving the destruction or attribution of resources, according to Francois Paget, senior threat researcher at McAfee.

People involved in those support services have been successfully prosecuted in some countries, notably Canada, he told attendees at McAfee's Focus 2010 security conference, citing the examples of Momin Khawaija, who was found guilty of experimenting with the remote detonation of explosive devices via the Internet, the 'Toronto 18' convicted after using the Internet to learn how to make bombs, and Said Namouh, who received a life sentence for conspiracy to bomb Europe, participating in a terrorist group, and aiding terrorist activities.

Namouh distributed jihadist propaganda, and images used in a video showing the apparent execution-style murder of several people were found on his computer, Paget said.

He also noted that some Islamic groups have developed and distributed their own VPN and encryption software, fearing the presence of backdoors in other such products.

The Internet is also being used to spread disinformation, Paget said, giving the example of a supposed Al-Qaeda document aimed at English-speaking supporters. According to Paget, an analysis of the PDF file showed it came from a US source. "It was clearly disinformation," he said, but did not speculate about who might have been responsible.

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