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Cyberpolitics Term Paper
Ali Madad Azimi ICP-104
Prof: Christian Erickson
Chicago Style/Formatting
Final Term Paper
May 11th, 2007
Contemporary Terrorist Activities in Cyberspace
The Internet and web development have brought new facilities not only to the ordinary people but also to the terrorist groups and organizations to take their struggle into cyberspace. Thus, the Internet has become one of the primary tools and weapons of contemporary terrorist networks or organizations to spread their ideologies as well as to achieve their goal/s either at the local, national, or global level. The most frequent activities of terrorist organizations on the Internet are e-propaganda, recruitment, mobilization, network establishment, information exchange, fund raising, planning and coordination and so forth. Most of the contemporary terrorist organizations or networks have their official web sites through which they can further their communications and establish relations with other terrorist groups. They also use the Internet to seek supporters through e-propaganda distributed to a global audience. Almost all terrorists use professional computer and Internet specialists, such as hackers, to get their job done in the cyberspace.
Defining Terrorism:
The word terrorism is not a modern concept; rather it has very deep historical roots, which could be traced as far as to 60s AD. The modern notion of terrorism is much more complicated to define it in terms of its functions, structures, strategies, ideologies and targets which make it complex to come up a consensual and concise meaning to know what really terrorism is about. Since terrorism has copious meanings, we should be conscious of the general idea of terrorism. Thus, Enders and Sandler define “Terrorism as the premeditated use or threat of use of extra-normal violence or brutality by sub-national groups to obtain a political, religious, or ideological objective through intimidation of a huge audience either directly or indirectly.”[1]
Defining Cyberterrorism:
In addition to concept of terrorism, the idea of cyberterrorism has the same objectives and threats as ordinary terrorists, but the only distinction is that ordinary terrorists’ actions are involved in the physical world while cyberterrorists’ activities are involved in cyberspace where there is no physical bounder at all that can restrict their cross bordering. Since the invention of the Internet and the World Wide Web with all their essential technologies, terrorist organizations have found completely new and useful facilitator with that they can further their objectives very easy and with very low cost which I will discuss later. So, cyberterrorism, according to Sarah Gordon, is defined as “unlawful attacks and threats of attack against computers, networks, and the information stored therein when done to intimidate or coerce a government or its people in furtherance of political or social objectives.” [2]
Generally, we can state that there is high correlation between terrorists and the use of cyberspace in the sense that terrorists use any means of violence and non-violence to achieve their objectives and Internet is one of their major tools nowadays that can facilitate their efforts. Sarah Gordon also states “to qualify cyberterrorism, an attack should result in violence against persons or property, or at least cause enough harm to generate fear.”[3] Such good examples of such cyber vulnerable targets could be attacks on computers, secret information of an organization or a company or an attack on bank accounts and etc. Basically, terrorists have much more liberty in the sphere of cyberspace, particularly in a democratic society where the principle of privacy, and freedom of expression are highly valued meaning that terrorists or those carrying out the functions of terrorist are really hard to find them out.
Since the Internet is a decentralized cyberspace where many types of activities are being carried out, it is quite difficult to prevent certain harmful activities of terrorists, which may bring chaos and disorder the region, state, or even the entire globe. Due to the decentralization of the cyberspace, terrorist groups and organizations use the Internet in a variety of ways. First of all, domestic terrorist and state terrorist networks such as states and opposition parties that have official websites use the Internet not only to publish pro-network propaganda in order to find more supporters within the network, but also criticize each others goals. Mazzoleni says “the web has been acknowledged as a powerful tool for dissemination of ideas and information and for social and political mobilization especially by movements that do not have direct access to the mainstream media.”[4]
Second, global terrorist networks such as Al-Qaeda uses the Internet as the other terrorist networks to get mass attention and to find more supporters. Terrorist organizations or groups that are functioning in the name of Jihad against non-believers use the Internet not only for Islamic propaganda but also to create fear in the heart of civilians through kidnappings, assassinations and bombings of innocent people. Michael Scheuer points out some of Al-Qaeda’s Internet activities states that “by the late 1990's, Al-Qaeda’s use of the Internet was well underway in regard to theological and paramilitary training. This trend accelerated rapidly after 9/11 when U.S. airpower made the use of physical training camps problematic.”[5]
Third, both nation and global terrorist networks hire professional specialists such as hackers to crack down the websites as well as to get access to the secret information of the organization. It is the case where both terrorist and counter-terrorist organizations struggle with each other. For counter-terrorist intelligence it is a struggle for the security of the state, while for the terrorists it is their way of approaching goals. Michael Scheuer states that, “Al-Qaeda’s assiduous effort to cultivate and train professional insurgents and urban warfare specialists via the Internet is bearing fruit,” [6]
Furthermore, most terrorists not only fight on the ground but they also lead the cyberwar against their enemies and friends of their enemies through highly paid hackers as well as some professional devotees who could bring huge damages to some valuable infrastructures of the cyberspace. Mazzoleni discusses the Internet as deadly weapon used by terrorists and hackers who says “thousands of infrastructures – some of which of critical kind (such as power plants, oil refineries, telephone networks, etc) are run by computers that are connected to the World Wide Web and are potentially accessible by hackers.”[7]
Since the Internet became one of the major instruments of terrorists, they use it for a variety of purposes. The first purpose is the e-propaganda, where terrorists can spread their ideologies to the world audience, particularly to the favorite individuals. The traditional mechanism of propaganda such as TVs and radios was quite hard for terrorists to spread their ideologies and activities as well as it was difficult to find more contacts with other adherent groups. Thus, Internet has facilitated the function of terrorist groups in the sense that they can easily get more world attention, easy and cheap access to information, and find supporters and contacts and many other facilities as Mazzoleni describes it “the Net reveals its unprecedented communication power: it is global, it is timeless, it is cheap, it has no ‘gatekeepers’, it can carry huge amounts of information, etc. All sorts of groups, movements, causes, parties resort today to the Internet to post their ideas and ideologies.”[8]
The Internet brought more capabilities not only to its common users, but as to terrorist groups, that’s why terrorists use Internet heavily on the 21st century for the pursuit of their interests as well as for their cost benefit analysis. Generally Internet has the following advantages as Mazzoleni summed them up:
The Internet has a set of ‘added values’ that facilitate the ‘operations’ to terrorist organizations such easy access; little or no regulation, censorship, huge audiences, multimedia environment (the ability to combine text, graphics, audio, and video and to allow users to download films, songs, books, posters, and so forth); and the ability to shape coverage in the traditional mass media, which increasingly use the Internet as a source for stories.[9]
Second, recruitment and mobilization is another incentive for terrorists’ use of the Internet. They use the Internet to recruit online members and to mobilize people toward the goal of the organization. For instance, terrorists do some e-marketing through their websites just for mobilization and getting new members. There are individuals who are willing to join such terrorist organizations they most often visit their favorable terrorist websites. Thus, people will be contacted and recruited who most often visit particular terrorist’s websites. So, the terrorist group follows them until they find out that why such particular individuals are interested in viewing their websites more often. Those individuals who are willing to join the organization can easily be recruited for terrorist activities through Internet. On the other hand, terrorist groups regularly visit Internet chat rooms and cyber-nets in reach of new members. Gabriel Weimann discusses how terrorist use internet for recruitment and mobilization who says, “terrorist websites make heavy use of slogans and offer items for sale, including T-shirts, badges, flags, and videotapes, etc, all aimed at sympathizers. Terrorist organizations capture information about the users who browse their websites and will be contacted.”[10]
Third, the activities that are done by terrorist groups in the cyberspace need substantial financial resources, so terrorist groups use Internet for fundraising as well. The worldwide terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, Hizb u-Tahrir and others do not have direct like with other members and supporters, thus, they use e-transferring financial means among members. Basically, these terrorist organizations have members in the places where they can collect money on religious days such as Friday Worships in the Muslim community. In addition, they are charity organizations that donate money via their websites for the support of terrorist activities where they all have a common bank account for collecting the money. Mazzoleni uses Al-Qaeda as an example of how terrorist groups use Internet for fundraising where he states that terrorists finance their activities through “traditional way of gathering money in the Friday worships, charity organizations, where these charities had a website through which they provided a bank account number for donations as well as information about donating by credit card and etc.”[11]
Fourth, besides fundraising, recruitment and mobilization, Terrorists use the Internet to plan and coordinate their actions, counter-terrorist groups have founded that the 9/11 event was heavily planed and coordinated via computer by Al-Qaeda members. Other terrorist groups also use the Internet in the same way as Al-Qaeda has been doing so far. They often use encrypted messages with well-protected password with active members during their planning and coordination period. There are evidences that show how Al-Qaeda members used the Internet in planning and coordination of 9/11 attacks. Mazzoleni states that, “Al-Qaeda terrorists relied heavily on the Internet for help in planning and coordinating the September 11th attacks. Thousands of encrypted messages were found on the computer of arrested Al-Qaeda.”[12]
Fifth, Internet networking is another purpose of the terrorist use of the Internet. In general, most of the national and international terrorist groups have hierarchical organizations and cell categorized members who are acting independent of each other. Therefore, most terrorists have contacts with other members via the Internet. Besides, networking within groups, terrorists can actually find network with other terrorist organizations that have much similar goals and plans so that the will became as a united force to further their mission collectively, as Al-Qaeda has connect with other terrorist organizations in the tribal areas of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and etc. Weimann talks that these loosely independent terrorist cells use “the Internet, to maintain contact with one another as well as with members of other terrorist groups.”[13]
Finally, terrorist groups use Internet for sharing information within the group as well as with other terrorist organizations. In deed, there are a number of websites related to terrorist organizations provide information on how to make devastative weapons, poisonous things, or other deadly staff for terrorist attack. Al-Qaeda has also a huge book called “The Encyclopedia of Jihad,” which gives information about how to arrange and plan attacks. Weimann discuses how terrorist provide useful information for members where he states,
Dozens of sites provide information on how to build chemical and explosive weapons. The Terrorist’s Handbook and The Anarchist Cookbook offer detailed instructions on how to construct a wide range of bombs. The Encyclopedia of Jihad prepared by Al-Qaeda offers detailed instructions on how to establish an underground organization and execute attacks.[14]
To conclude my discussion, I would restate that Internet has brought a lot of facilities not only to ordinary people, but also to the terrorist groups. In deed, terrorist groups or organizations use Internet very often in their daily activities and it became one of their primary and less costly tools in the 21st century. Terrorist organizations use Internet in a variety of ways such as to get national and world audience by e-propaganda in two different context, first, they try to create more fear in the mind of people by posting video clips and pictures of hostages and murdered hostages, assassinations and so for.
In one hand, they create fear in the heart of people by such fearful actions; on the other hand, they get substantial financial resources by taking hostages and hijacking. In contrast, they find new members via the Internet who are easily found by that who often they visit a terrorist website. And there are individuals that voluntarily joint such terrorist organizations either due to economic, political or religious reasons.
Furthermore, terrorist groups also use the Internet to recruit and mobilize new members, to provide financial resources through donations and charities, to plan and coordinate their actions, to create further network and keep contact with other members, share information on how to plan an attack and etc. These are some of the common usages of Internet by Terrorist organizations in the 21st century. Moreover, prior to the invention of Internet, terrorist fights were on the physical space, but now they also lead to war into cyberspace where they devastate the infrastructures of cyberspace by hiring highly qualified specialists as hackers.
Consequently, cyberspace is a decentralized zone where terrorist activities are hard to prevent. But there are counter-cyberterrorist organizations mainly the state agencies that are responsible for controlling the flow of information throughout cyberspace. Even then, such counter-cyberterrorist agencies are not successful in their pursuit of terrorist activities in the Internet, because most of the times the terrorist websites get shut down by state counter-terrorist organization and they reappear under a different domain name with the same information.
Bibliography
Gordon Sarah: “Cyberterrorism?” Symantec Security Response: (n.d.) http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/reference/cyberterrorism.pdf(accessed Feb. 8, 2007).
Michael Scheuer: “The Role of Internet Intelligence and Urban Warfare Training,” Volume 2, Issue 15, August 5, 2005 ,Jamestown Foundation.
Mazzoleni Gianpietro: “E-terrorism: The Powerful Weapons of Islamic Jihad,” Paper presented at the APSA Convention, Sept. 1-4, 2005.Washington, DC
United States Institute of Peace, “the Diplomacy of Counterterrorism, Lessons Learned, Ignored,” 1200 17th Street NW • Washington, January 14, 2002,
Ulph Stephen: “The Global Jihad’s Internet Front,” Volume II. Issue 23, December 13, 2005, Jamestown Foundation.
Victor and Harwood G. Paul: “Terror on the Web,” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. Washington, DC. August 31st-September 4th, http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/prol/prol01/index.php?click_key=2 (accessed Feb 6, 2007)
Weimann Gabriel: “How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet,” Special Report 116, February 2004, United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC. http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr116.pdf (accessed Feb 7, 2007)
Weimann Gabriel: “How Real is the Threat,” Special Report 116, February 2004, United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC.
Weimann, Gabriel: “Terror on the Internet” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 2004-03
Winston, Thomas: “The Use of the Internet for Terrorist Purposes,” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2005-03-05
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[1] Victor and Harwood G. Paul: “Terror on the Web,” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. Washington, DC. August 31st-September 4th, http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/prol/prol01/index.php?click_key=2 (accessed Feb 6, 2007)
[2] Gordon Sarah: “Cyberterrorism?” Symantec Security Response: (n.d.)
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/reference/cyberterrorism.pdf (accessed Feb. 8, 2007).
[3] Gordon Sarah: “Cyberterrorism?” Symantec Security Response: (n.d.)
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/reference/cyberterrorism.pdf (accessed Feb. 8, 2007).
[4] Mazzoleni Gianpietro: “E-terrorism: The Powerful Weapons of Islamic Jihad,” Paper presented at the APSA Convention, Sept. 1-4, 2005.Washington, DC
[5] Michael Scheuer: “The Role of Internet Intelligence and Urban Warfare Training,” Volume 2, Issue 15, August 5, 2005
, Jamestown Foundation.
[6] Michael Scheuer: “The Role of Internet Intelligence and Urban Warfare Training,” Volume 2, Issue 15, August 5, 2005
, Jamestown Foundation.
[7] Mazzoleni Gianpietro: “E-terrorism: The Powerful Weapons of Islamic Jihad,” Paper presented at the APSA Convention, Sept. 1-4, 2005.Washington, DC
[8] Mazzoleni Gianpietro: “E-terrorism: The Powerful Weapons of Islamic Jihad,” Paper presented at the APSA Convention, Sept. 1-4, 2005.Washington, DC
[9] Mazzoleni Gianpietro: “E-terrorism: The Powerful Weapons of Islamic Jihad,” Paper presented at the APSA Convention, Sept. 1-4, 2005.Washington, DC
[10] Weimann Gabriel: “How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet,” Special Report 116, February 2004, United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC. http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr116.pdf (accessed Feb 7, 2007)
[11] Mazzoleni Gianpietro: “E-terrorism: The Powerful Weapons of Islamic Jihad,” Paper presented at the APSA Convention, Sept. 1-4, 2005.Washington, DC
[12] See Mazzoleni Gianpietro: “E-terrorism: The Powerful Weapons of Islamic Jihad,” Paper presented at the APSA Convention, Sept. 1-4, 2005.Washington, DC
[13] Weimann Gabriel: “How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet,” Special Report 116, February 2004, United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC. http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr116.pdf (accessed Feb 7, 2007)
[14] Weimann Gabriel: “How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet,” Special Report 116, February 2004, United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC. http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr116.pdf (accessed Feb 7, 2007)
