CYBERTERORISM - A NEW FORM OF TERRORISM

摘要

The common feature of Internet like ease to use, ease of access, lack of regulation, vast potential audiences, or fast flow of information, represent many advantage of groups committed to terrorizing societies to achieve their goals. These groups can be possibly cyberterrorists. Today, all active terrorist groups have established their presence on the Internet. In last years, the scan of Internet revealed hundreds of websites serving terrorists and their supporters. Much more, the terrorism on the Internet is a very dynamic phenomenon because the websites suddenly emerge or its frequently modify their formats or swiftly disappear (its seem to disappear by changing their online address but retaining much the same content). Terrorist websites target three different audiences: current and potential supporters; international public opinion; and enemy publics. In the same time, the mass media, policymakers, and even security agencies have tended to focus on the exaggerated threat of cyberterrorism and paid insufficient attention to the more routine uses made of the Internet. Those uses are numerous and, from the terrorists' perspective, invaluable.