Cyber Terrorism and other types of terrorism in Australia Research Paper

Cyber Terrorism and other types of terrorism in Australia - Research Paper Example The practical difficulty in controlling cyber crimes made it one of the most dangerous terrorist activities of modern era. Since most of the critical areas of human life are making use of computers and internet at present, cyber attack can affect the social life drastically within a second. For example, transporting systems, power supply, military operation and telecommunication systems etc are relying heavily on computers and internet for its routine jobs and functions at present. Any problems occurred in the functionality of computers and internet can affect these areas negatively and cause immense damages to public life. This paper analyses the terrorism threats faced by Australia in general and cyber threats in particular. It is not necessary that cyber attacks may create physical ham alone to Australia. In fact cyber attacks can be used to defame a country like Australia in front of others. The most common form of hacktivism is the defacing of web pages to carry a message to the audience of that web site. The site shown in Figure below – an Australian business defaced to accuse Australia of being a terrorist country, is a recent example of hacktivism – as well as illustrating the tensions of the war on terror being transferred to the electronic realm (Ellsmore, p.5) The above webpage is a clear example of how the cyber attacks happening against Australia. Australia is a strong supporter of war on terror which is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. Terrorists target all the countries which support war on terror in some way. Since most of the countries like Australia have strengthened the security measures against a physical or direct terrorist attack terrorists now adopting channels of indirect attack. Cyber attacks give them the luxury of attacking their targets from a distance and the chances of arrest or punishment are extremely rare. â€Å"Evidence exist s to suggest that al-Qaeda have also been using the Internet to collect & collate information about potential critical infrastructure targets† (Ellsmore, p.6). Internet is an ocean of information. It is not necessary to visit a place to collect information about it. All the details about all the places in the world are available on internet at present. It is easy for terrorist groups to collect and analyze this information before planning an attack on a particular target. The electronic information can be used for cyber attacks or even for physical attacks. According to the CERT Co-ordination Centre, the number of reported computer security incidents increased from 9,859 in 1999 to 52,658 in 2001, and we are on track for almost 100,000 in 2023. Similarly, the 2002 Australian Computer Crime and Security Survey found that 67% of respondents suffered a security incident, twice the level of 1994 (Ellsmore, p.8). The above statistics are clear indications of growing threats faced b y Australia from cyber terrorism. Cyber attacks can affect the productivity of organizations and employment losses to the employees. In other words, cyber attacks can destroy affect the financial systems more than the lives of the people. The expenses needed to conduct a cyber attack are extremely cheaper compared to the expenses needed for a physical attack. At the same time cyber attacks can cause more damages to the target than a physical attack. Moreover, the publicity generated by cyber attacks may create panic and disgust among the people. The above facts motivate terrorist in selecting cyber medium for their future channel of attack. â€Å"