The use of the internet for terrorist purposes

Abstract

The internet can be used as a tool for terrorist attacks. The development of the information society as well as our dependence on computers, information systems and rapid connections, have paved the way to terrorism and cyber terrorism. Technological progress has allowed terrorist groups the access to almost all kind of weapons and they have also begun to use cyber space. They use it basically for the dissemination of information and making global links between terrorist group cells. The internet is used above all as a medium for the transmission of information. Information is a kind of power for terrorist groups and with effective use of the media, they can have an impact on the general public. The internet, with its characteristics, enables terrorist organisations to spread contemporary threats. It enables an immediate global spread of threats, the promotion of their organizations and the recruitment of "fighters" Internet terrorism means basically attacks on computer systems with the purpose of harming individuals and not computers. Countries trying to increase security have already adopted a range of legal regulations with a view to restricting internet crime and terrorism.

In the majority of security agencies, investigators admit that internet terrorism has been until now only a theoretical concept and that the possibilities of its realization are not at this moment large. Nobody has yet been killed by a terrorist using computer technology. Even in the world's best known terrorist organization, Al Kaida, no evidence has been found that the organization has prepared serious destructive action, when their bases, equipped with high computer technology, have been discovered. Furthermore, computer experts are almost certain that it is practically impossible to cause the death of an individual by the use of the internet, and even less the death of a large group of people.