The Dangers of Cyber-Terrorism

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In the future, cyber crime will become the leading threat to the safety and security of the American people. Experts on cyber crime agree that cyber crime is an issue that needs to be focused on more in-depth because the wide-spread use of computers by the global economy has made the use of computers and internet vital to everyday life (Siegel, 2009; FBI, 2011). There are 3 major types of cyber crime which includes: cyber fraud, cyber vandalism, and cyber terrorism (Seigel, 2009; Thio, 2010). Cyber terrorism, the more dangerous of the 3, is defined as the use of digital equipment to bring down a country by tapping into its computer based programs and dismantling its infrastructure which includes but not limited to: banking networks, air traffic control systems, gas and oil production, transportation, and emergency services that all rely on computer networks to function (Thio, 2010). Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair and Thio (2010), both agree that it is America’s huge dependence on the cyber world for its critical life support functions that makes it severely vulnerable to succumbing to an unprecedented electronic attack. Just like a traditional attack, Cyber terrorism can lead to death or bodily injury, explosions, plane crashes, water contamination, or severe economic loss (Thio, 2010).

First of all, the thing that makes cyber terrorism intrinsically different from standard terrorism attacks is the fact that it is barrier proof and terrorists can bypass the American law because they can operate in countries that do not have laws against cyber terrorism (Siegel, 2009). Cyber terrorists can also use the internet as a supplement to regular attacks because they can obtain information about target countries an...

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