Challenges Strategy, Tactics of Terrorists Hackers to Cyber Security and Data Privacy

Abstract

A preliminary review of these factors suggests that computer network vulnerabilities are an increasingly serious business problem but that their threat to national security is overstated. Modern industrial societies are more robust than they appear at first glance. Critical infrastructures, especially in large market economies are more distributed, diverse, redundant and self-healing than a cursory assessment may suggest, rendering them less vulnerable to attack. In all cases, cyber attacks are less effective and less disruptive than physical attacks. Their only advantage is that they are cheaper and easier to carry out than a physical attack.

Much of the literature on cyber-terrorism assumes that the vulnerability of computer networks and the vulnerability of critical infrastructures are the same and that these vulnerabilities put national security at a significant risk. Given the newness of computer network technology and the rapidity with which it spread into economic activity, these assumptions are not surprising. A closer look at the relationships between computer networks and critical infrastructures, their vulnerability to attack and the effect on national security, suggests that the assumption of vulnerability is wrong. A full reassessment is outside the scope, but a brief review suggests that while many computer networks remain very vulnerable to attack, few critical infrastructures are equally vulnerable.  Terrorists or foreign militaries may well launch cyber attacks, but they are likely to be disappointed in the effect. Nations are more robust than the early analysts of cyber-terrorism and cyber-warfare give them credit for and cyber attacks are less damaging than physical attacks. Digital Pearl Harbors are unlikely. Infrastructure systems, because they have to deal with failure on a routine basis are also more flexible and responsive in restoring service than early analysts realized. Cyber attacks, unless accompanied by a simultaneous physical attack that achieves physical damage, are short lived and ineffective. However, if the risks of cyber-terrorism and cyber-war are overstated, the risk of espionage and cyber crime may be not be fully appreciated by many observers.  This is not a static situation and the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to cyber attack could change if three things occur. Vulnerability could increase as societies move to a ubiquitous computing environment when more daily activities have become automated and rely on remote computer networks. The second is that vulnerability could increase as more industrial and infrastructure applications, especially those used for SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), move from relying on dedicated, proprietary networks to using the Internet and Internet protocols for their operations. This move to greater reliance on networks seems guaranteed given the cost advantage of Internet communications protocols (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol), but it also creates new avenues of access. These changes will lead to increased vulnerabilities if countries do not balance the move to become more networked and more dependent on Internet protocols with efforts to improve network security, make law enforcement more effective, and ensure that critical infrastructures are robust and resilient.

KeyWords:- Cyber Terrorism- Why Computer Attacks are Successful, Vulnerabilities Persist, Possible Effects of Cyber Attack, Capabilities for Cyber Attack, Terrorist-Sponsoring Nations, Possible Links Between Hackers and Terrorists, National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace, Terrorist Tactics.