This paper will take a look at Cyber terrorism and explaining what it is and what it isn’t by showing how closely related Cyber Terrorism and Cyber Warfare are. Although the affects of both may have the same results, ultimately it is the tools of Cyber Warfare that are used in the performance of Cyber Terrorism. An examination of the political problem across three presidential administrations and the dilemmas they face in protecting what we deem valuable will be followed as the nation struggles with the concept and new threat of terror attacks on U.S. soil. Yet at the same time security experts, law enforcement and hackers are raging a cyber battle upon the world’s computer networks and infrastructure at an ever alarming rate. The world’s government agencies, terrorist organizations and organized crimes units, are profiting from the proliferation of terrorist acts against the infrastructure of cities worldwide. Electric, gas, water treatment and supply facilities are at risk, as well as the banking and financial institutions. The defense against such attacks starts with the acknowledgement that the threat exists; unfortunately not everyone in the governments has done this. The laws that were established to protect our privacy online are in some ways the same laws that leave the U.S. vulnerable and unable to counter cyber terrorism acts. The threat of cyber terrorism, does it exist?

Cyber Terrorism Defined

Cyber terrorism is a very misleading term, depending on who you ask it will take on varying degrees meanings. Since September 11, 2001 actions relating to deployments by known terrorist organizations and of disrupted attacks against information systems for the primary purpose of creating alarm and panic have been coined by some experts, who are associated with government agencies, as the standard for defining cyber terrorism. Others have added the phases; the premeditated use of disruptive activities, or the threat thereof, against computers and/or networks, with the intention to cause harm or further social, ideological, religious, political or similar objectives. By this broad definition, it is difficult to identify any instances of cyber terrorism. Mark Pollitt, special agent for the FBI, offers a working definition: "Cyber terrorism is the premeditated, politically motivated attack against information, computer systems, computer programs, and data which result in violence against noncombatant targets by sub national groups or clandestine agents." (Pollitt, Retrieved March 11, 2010, http://en.wikipedia.org)

Regardless of the exact definition used, cyber terrorism must produce two actions. First it must produce fear. It is the fear that motivates security experts and business to set safeguards in place to ward off any potential attack or perceived threat. Second there must be an attack against a computer or network to validate the threat. Without a detection of an attack the message of the attacker could not be substantiated.

To further clarify terrorism in the cyber world is should be noted that there are certain names associated with the people who would perpetrate such acts on an individual level. There are hacker, cracker and cyber warrior. To simplify the differences between them and to show how they will be used in reference to this paper, they will be defined here. The term hacker refers to an individual who breaks into a computer by illegal or unauthorized means. In the past hacking was and is in some circles still is consider bad, although the skills a hacker processes are used in the cyber security field to protect vital asset. Today the term has become more of a statement to show weaknesses in the computer or software than for malicious intent although in this paper the word maybe used to show illegal actions. The term cracker has always referred to someone who had malicious intent. A software cracker is a person who modifies computer code. The code maybe distributed for illegal or malicious means. The basic skills necessary for a cyber warrior will vary in magnitude; however, they include: information security, hacking, espionage, and computer forensics. A cyber warrior is a person who is highly skilled in the art of cyber warfare. Governments, their militaries, law enforcement, the private sector and criminals (individuals or groups) around the world are taking the initiative to train their people in the field of cyber warfare.

A hacker, cracker or cyber warrior may at some time be engaged in cyber terrorist, with the primary goal being to raise fear and be acknowledged for their attack. Quite often the goal is to commit a cyber crime. A cyber crime is a crime where the internet or computers are used to commit a crime. What disqualifies this from being a cyber terrorism attack is the lack of fear as a motive to deliver a message. Cyber crime is generally financially motivated. Cyber crimes may also include hacking, copyright infringement, child pornography, and child grooming.

The View of Cyber Terrorism from 1996 to 2010

Not everyone believes that cyber terrorism is a problem. Two camps of thought have formed about the threat of cyber terrorism and how much damage if any, would such an attack bring. The first is of the mind that the targets of a cyber attack would be against the infrastructure of the world. This includes telecommunications, electrical power systems, gas and oil reserves, banking and finance systems, transportation, water supplies, and emergency services such as fire and police, and governments. The other is that computer failures and power outages are a simple fact of life, and the economy is too resilient to be easily crippled by system failures, deliberate or accidental. This mind set goes on to explain that a much broader threat is the organized effort that is believed to exists in germ warfare, which could kill tens of thousands people. Continuing with this, there is a fear that there may be as greater threat from the fringes of American life, where survivalists and right-wing opponents of the Federal Government appear to be taking a greater interest in weapons of mass destruction.

In July of 1996 President Clinton signed an executive order for a panel of experts to study the problem of cyber terrorism, and then tell the American public how to safeguard against information warfare. He sought after $2.8bn from Congress to help defend the U.S. against attacks by computer viruses, and chemical or biological weapons. President Clinton then signed two orders implementing his new terrorism policies. One outlined new steps to prevent and prepare for terrorist attacks against the United States. The other spelled out ways to protect the nation's information infrastructure from cyber- terrorism.

January 1999 the presidential coordinator for the counter terrorism effort, Richard Clarke, felt that there was the threat of information warfare from a rogue nation, terrorist group or criminal cartel could perform a systematic national intrusion into computer systems that could have effects comparable to the bombing of infrastructures during the Second World War. The threat was made very clear when a satellite malfunctioned, disabling pagers, automatic money machines, credit card systems and television networks around the world. The following year a cyber attack against CNN, Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon, ETrade and other major web sites inconvenienced millions of users and continued to raise concerns about internet security. Some of these attacks were apparently coordinated, overloaded these sites with a barrage of messages generated by hackers. A 15-year-old Canadian boy was charged with two counts of computer mischief for crippling the CNN website and 1,200 other related cyber attacks. The FBI, Royal Canadian Mounted police and the Justice Department investigated the attacks but were only able to make the connection to the boy after he boasted about the exploit in an Internet chat room.

In year 2000, prior to the mass terror attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, cyber attacks were prevalent. The FBI believed the damage caused by international hacking could run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Law enforcement’s view of cyber terrorism was wherever they are; hackers will be investigated and arrested. Although the opinion of most civilian security experts was that people should not feel safe from these attacks because of an arrest, cyber terrorism is a new form of terrorism and it is not going to go away. The world still did not comprehend that the “denial of service” (DoS) attack that requires a large capacity network capable of transmitting large volumes of data to computers, were common and very vulnerable.

One month after the 9-11 attacks Jeffrey A. Hunker, the former National Security Council cyber-terrorism expert, said an attack could be launched against the United States by one person at a computer terminal 1,000 miles away. "With people running everywhere and police not knowing what to do, the resulting panic would result in a lot of loss of life and do what terrorists are trying to do, which is spread uncertainty and fear in the U.S. population". (MEYER, J., & SHIVER, J., Jr. 2001 http://articles.latimes.com)

Terrorist and terrorism now had a new face; with something tangible that all sides could agree upon the “War on Terrorism” had begun in earnest. President Bush took steps to heighten security in cyber space. Governor Tom Ridge was named to the newly created post of director of the Office of Homeland Security, retired Army General Wayne Downing was appointed to serve as national director for combating terrorism and Richard Clarke was named special White House advisor for cyber space security. Mr. Clarke, after expressing many warnings of the possibility of a devastating computer-based attack on the United States, now had a platform from which to launch his fears. The hijackers who took part in the attacks on the 11th of September were believed to have used the internet to communicate, logging on to computer terminals in public libraries and copy shops to make their online activities difficult to track. Government officials started to admit that hackers are trying to download military and national security secrets, and that the US Department of Defense computer systems had suffered from many of the same viruses that have crippled corporate and personal computer systems.

Yet the argument continued as many terrorism experts said, "bombs are better than bytes" still remaining skeptical of the implications of cyber terrorism. Richard Forno, who developed the first information security program for the U.S. House of Representatives and served as the chief information security officer for Network Solutions, shied away from the idea of a dramatic kind of cyber attack envisioned in Electronic Pearl Harbor scenarios. “Cyber attacks were more of a nuisance than viable terrorist tactics”, he said. And he did not consider someone hacking Amazon or eBay to be an act of cyber-terrorism. The government needed to respond to specific threats and not simply give in to knee-jerk reactions, given by some in Congress. (2001 http://news.bbc.co.uk)

Over the next few years the Bush administration had requested only $19.3 million for "Cybercorps", a scholarship program to recruit more computer experts to the government to fight cyber terrorism, and $27.1 billion for the military and domestic security needs. Foreign governments like India who later enacted The Information Technology Act of 2008, were politely urging the United States to become more involved in the fight against cyber terrorism. By mid July of 2002 the banking and financial institutions of the world had made more progress in protecting their systems from hackers, according to Dan Verton, a cyber terrorism expert at Computerworld magazine in Washington D.C. felt that utilities, oil companies and industrial plants were still lagging in their efforts to secure their computer systems and networks. (Wright, 2007 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2002-07-19-cyber-terrorism_x.htm)

While debate in Congress carried on, cyber attacks like what took place in 1997 continued. A teen-age hacker broke into the control tower computer system at Worchester, Mass., airport, disrupting service. And in 2000 a hacker broke into a utility company computer in Maroochy Shire, Australia, and released millions of gallons of raw sewage into the town waterways. Finally the House of Representatives sponsored funding for cyber security research totaling $878 million. Other congressman was pushing for legislation to create "Netguard", an emergency response team of computer experts that would aid the government in the event of a cyber attack. The House also passed legislation boosting criminal penalties against cybercriminals. But despite the flurry of legislation the mentality was, it could still take years for the nation to fully prepare its complex telecommunications system and power grid for a cyber attack. The primary concern of the Bush administration remained focused on the immediate and tangible threat of al-Qaeda as a terrorist organization that could again strike at U.S interests, but not from the internet. When a U.S. military plane crashed in Chinese territory in 2003 after computer hackers attacked American systems with viruses. The academic Dr. Alan Ryan warned that cyber terrorism was the way of the future and the nation's security experts would have to focus their attention on the problem. "Cyber attack is a reality ... it has become a weapon of non-war…” (Canbarra, 2003 http://identity-love-sock.com///_age-03-02-26.001.html) By mid 2005 the attitude of the American people about the importance of cyber-security, was no one would ever die in a cyber-attack. Richard Clarke, a former terrorism and cyber-security czar in the Bush Administration believed they were all wrong. The dangers of hackers, software worms, and computer viruses attacking the automatic networks that run critical infrastructure are all emerging as a vital and weak link in America's defense against terrorism. Computer networks run everything from water-treatment plants and oil refineries to power grids and transport networks. These facilities often keep operating 24/7. In the wrong hands these facilities could become a lethal weapon if compromised. According to IBM's global security intelligence team, in the entire first half of 2005 there were 237 cyber-attacks worldwide, a 50 percent increase from the same period the year before.