¶ … Cyberterrorism on the U.S. Economy
The Impact of Cyber Terrorism on the U.S. Economy
In accordance to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), cyber terrorism can be defined as a calculated and politically enthused attack against data, information, computer systems and computer programs, which in turn, brings about non-physical vehemence against civilian targets. In simple words, cyber terrorism implies making use of the web to cause detriment to the real world and more so to a civilian target, evolving an individual or a group's devout and political objectives. The threat of cyber terrorism to the general public, the government establishment and most of all the United States economy, lies in the fact that cyber terrorists have the capacity to shut down all of the main systems that are relied upon, such as the systems of banking and also water systems. The impacts that such an invasion has on the nation as a whole are overwhelming as they could easily bring the entire nation to a standstill. Cyber terrorism does not necessarily pose a physical threat. However, it does pose a significant threat to systems and the economy of the nation (Halder, 2011).
In the contemporary, the United States faces substantial cyber security threats that put at risk America's critical infrastructure, the liberties that Americans access online, and the economic sustainability of U.S. commerce. The cybersecurity existing state of affairs is unbalanced, particularly when bearing in mind the massive and mounting scope of these threats (Bucci et al., 2013). Failure to take accountable action, on the other hand, leaves the U.S. susceptible to a diversity of threats. For instance, nations such as Russia, China, and Iran are more than prepared to snip or put an end to the U.S. digital property to advance their supremacy or reputation. In addition, non-state actors like Hamas and Hezbollah have also revealed the ability to apply cyber practices and criminal establishments from all over the globe, and have operated as appointed guns, in addition to, on their own, expending cyber implements as their weapon of choice. In addition, economic wise, cyber espionage is becoming rampant, as corporations in the United States are projected to experiencing losses of about $250 billion each year (Bucci et al., 2003). This paper purposes to discuss incidents of cyber terrorism in the past, the prevailing deterrents, how effective they are and the recommended measures that ought to be employed to assist in precluding cyber terrorism.
Historical Incidents of Cyber terrorism
Cyber terrorism is not an act that begun in recent years, but one that emanated several years ago. Methods of targeted attacks and information theft were comprehensively known and understood in the past periods. For instance, this goes back as far as the employment of semi-automatic machines to decrypt the Enigma machine that was used by the Germans during the course of World War II. Nevertheless, the apparent instances of cyber terrorist attacks began to transpire and were deployed in the 1990s, in addition to being directed at government systems, private proxies and corporations. One of the major historical instances of cyber terrorism can be highlighted through the famous 9/11 attacks. The 9/11 attack perceived characteristic implementation of cyber terrorism by Al Qaeda group against the United States government. This particular attack not only conveyed threat messages and communications, but also vandalized numerous websites, interrupted and messed up internet communication for the government, in addition to that of amenities for members of the public. In addition, this attack generated a massive responsiveness amongst the Muslim hackers to back the militant agenda in their jihad. The movement, as a consequence, turned as a place of interest to Muslim jihadists and their cyber terrorism undertakings against government administrations, from non-Muslim fundamentalist assemblages against government administrations (Halder, 2011).
One of the key examples is the incident that took place in 2010 where Russian hackers were able to slide in a digital bomb into the Nasdaq. This was a massive hack that included malware that had the potential to harm and incapacitate computers of the stock market and bring about mayhem on the economy of the United States. Basically, the hackers broke into the network of the stock exchange with personalized malware that had the capacity to not only spy, but also steal data and information. More so, it has the potential to bring about digital detriment and in theory, ruin the whole system. However, the lucky aspect is that this digital bomb never went off and was detected. Nonetheless, the fact that the bomb never went off is not key. The fine points of the cyber-attack elucidate, in real terms, the threats to...
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