GREG HUGHES:
Tech threats: the new front in the War on Terror
CBC News Viewpoint | September 01, 2004 | More from Greg Hughes
Greg Hughes is a 27-year-old freelance writer. He has written for Shift, Silicon Valley North, The Globe and Mail, the National Post, The Halifax Chronicle-Herald, the Queen's Alumni Review and many other publications and was an intern for CBC Radio One. He holds a B.A. (Hons) from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario and a graduate degree in journalism at the University of King's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
There's little doubt nowadays that the 21st century is shaping up to be a very unstable era in human history. Non-state actors like al-Qaeda are stepping up their fight against nation-states, employing mostly conventional, low-tech solutions to their acts of terrorism.
Yet there is a new frontier emerging in the War on Terror – cyber terrorism. As the internet continues to grow in popularity and usage around the globe, more malevolent forces are using the web as a means to spark fear and spread their messages of hate and violence.
Security personnel are framed by the "Video Wall" a set of nine rear projection video cubes displaying computer, video, and live camera shots from 78 different locations in Manhattan at the NYPD Emergency Operations Center, Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2004 in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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Cyber terrorism is a diverse set of technologies that ranges from viruses and denial-of-service attacks to posting messages, pictures and videos on websites whose purpose is to scare people.
It's particularly effective in the West because westerners are the most connected people in the world. For terrorists, the web offers the ability to reach the common people in a way that's uncontrolled and unnerving. If a website or virus reaches enough people and incites enough chaos, it's a cheap, easy way to scare people on a level similar to a "real world" terrorist attack. And you don't even have to be in a western country to make it all happen.
The most obvious example of cyber terrorism so far has been websites devoted to westerners held hostage by terrorists in the aftermath of the war in Iraq. The videos available on these sites have featured content that includes torture and live beheadings – content not suitable for any time of day on TV or radio. But online, the curious will, eventually, find it.
More disturbing, however, is that a cyber terrorist attack could, in theory, help to create more damage than the events of 9/11 could ever have accomplished.
Here's a potential scenario. Let's say a major city in the U.S. or Canada is hit with a terrorist attack similar to the attacks on the World Trade Center. The casualties are not as high as 9/11, but many people are injured and need help quickly.
Under normal circumstances, emergency dispatchers would be sending medical teams to help the wounded. But what if, at the same time as the physical attacks were occurring, an army of viruses with instructions to crash communication networks – emergency radio frequencies and cellphone radio towers – was deployed from elsewhere?
This isn't an unfeasible scenario; various viruses such as MyDoom have taken down entire networks with relative ease. Who's to say that an enterprising, net-savvy terrorist group couldn't make this happen? And how many more people could be in trouble because our high-tech communication networks are down after the fallout of a major explosion?
The United States, the prime target of many terrorist groups, is charged with the greatest burden in making sure cyber terrorism scenarios don't actually happen. But it's a tough task, given how quickly things can spread online. It only takes one downloaded file, one opened e-mail, to spread a virus worldwide in a matter of days.
BBC News has reported that in July of this year, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security internal memo described cyber terrorism as one of America's top five security threats. A new unit within the DHS, the National Cyber Security Division, was created explicitly for the purpose of tackling net security and addressing criticisms that the U.S. government has not done a good enough job of preventing future cyber terrorist attacks.
Some have argued that cyber terrorism is hardly a threat in comparison to a weapon of mass destruction going off in a major city like Chicago or London. Perhaps they're right and talk of cyber terrorism is simply fear mongering. But the tools that could enable terrorists to gain possession of weapons of mass destruction are already online. And technology that allows terrorists to gain information required to create these weapons is only improving as the web continues to evolve.
Quantum encryption – the use of photons as gatekeepers – is one such example. While still a few years away from being used for mass-market purposes, quantum encryption could be the most impenetrable form of encryption ever created. The use of decryption sequences employing quantum variables known only to the sender and recipient makes the job of intercepting and cracking encrypted e-mails, instant messages and websites nearly impossible. This is very worrisome for groups devoted to preventing terrorist acts, for how do you stop communications you can't even find a source for?
Various websites have for years offered detailed instructions on bomb-making techniques. So-called "darknets" – intranets that have no IP addresses listed so they can't be traced – spring up overnight where terror groups can share information secretly and disappear without a trace.
Should we be worried? Possibly. Is this a reason to minimize our dependence on the web? Not in the least. The internet is becoming the tool of choice for many aspects of our lives; abandoning what has become one of our greatest inventions would be to give in to fear. Yet like most technology, the web is a double-edged sword: for every benefit we gain from it, there's an equal trade-off.
All we can do is be vigilant, be responsible and be educated about the web – the better informed we are, the less chance cyber terrorists will succeed.
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