Terrorism: Classification and Perspectives

Terrorism

• Terrorism, from a governmental perspective, involves criminal acts against a state or organization, intended to instill fear in individuals or groups.
• From an academic perspective, terrorism is used for idiosyncratic, criminal, or political reasons. The direct targets of violence are not the primary targets.
• Victims are often randomly or selectively chosen from a target population and act as message generators.
• Terrorism involves acts of violence, victimization of innocents, advance planning, a criminal character, attempts to gain attention, and an intent to instill fear.

Terrorism: Classification through Motivation

• Individual terrorism often goes unnoticed due to lower impact and lack of group involvement.
• Political-Social Terrorism is often driven by political agendas to overthrow existing governments. Successful groups are often labeled patriots or heroes.
• Nationalist Terrorism involves groups with social commonalities or group identifications who feel oppressed and persist because of persecution.
• Environmental Terrorists, also known as ecoterrorists, focus on conservation of natural resources and animal rights (e.g., ELF, ALF).
• State-Sponsored Terrorism consists of governments committing acts of terror against their citizens or those supporting or committing terrorism against other governments (e.g., Nazi Germany, North Korea).
• Religious Terrorism is considered the most potent form driven by strong religious zealotry (e.g., Christian, Judaic, and Islamic groups).

Cyberterrorism

• Cyberterrorism is the act of Internet terrorism involving deliberate large-scale disruptions of computer networks through tools like computer viruses.
• It's a controversial term. It involves intentionally disrupting information systems to create alarm and panic using computer networks and the public internet to cause harm to political or ideological objectives.
• Cyberterrorism acts can range from quickly, as seen in the attack on Estonia, to more slowly, as observed in the Stuxnet attack on Iranian centrifuges.

Cyberterrorism as a Concept

• Cyberterrorism may emphasize communication rather than physical catastrophe or suffering.
• The act requires a transmitter (terrorist), a recipient (an audience, which are often not the victims), a mean (victims which are usually randomly selected), a message (often ideological), and a reaction (the desired impact).

Cyberterrorism Types

• Simple-Unstructured involves basic hacking using tools created by others against individuals, without robust target analysis, command and control, or learning capabilities.
• Advanced-Structured allows for sophisticated attacks against multiple systems or networks and modification, or creation of basic hacking tools, with rudimentary target analysis, command, and control, and learning capabilities.
• Complex-Coordinated can cause widespread disruption against integrated, heterogeneous defenses and utilizes sophisticated hacking tools, with enhanced target analysis, command, and control, and organizational learning capabilities.

Terror Online Activity

• Terrorist online activity involves many forms: propaganda, information dissemination, recruiting, and fundraising.
• Terrorists may justify their actions by claiming victim hood, outlining the perpetrators' weaknesses, or suggesting peaceful strategies to achieve settlements.
• Training can be conducted through web-based training, which is cheaper than other alternatives.
• Researchers gather and disseminate information. Planning may involve finding critical information like blueprints, and plotting steps to take.
• Communication is decentralized in online platforms like shared access draft folders, steganography, social networking sites (e.g., Google’s Orkut), and encryption.
• Attack mechanisms range from quick attacks to more drawn-out attacks, (e.g., Estonia attack, Stuxnet attack).

Terror Online Activity: Impact

• Physical Infrastructure compromises include power grids, water/sewer systems, dams, hospitals, GPS systems, communication, and energy pipelines.
• Critical Data compromises include social security, center for disease control, and defense systems.

Terrorism and Crime

• Criminal Activities associated with terrorism include identity theft, copyright infringement, cyberwarfare, and computer viruses.

Organized Crime

• Organized crime includes transnational, national, or local groups of highly centralized enterprises.
• They operate for illegal activities, often motivated by money and profit. Their activities include human trafficking, nuclear material trafficking, and identity theft.
• Traditional criminal gangs often turn to technology for more complex and profitable crimes.

Organized Crime: Structure & Hierarchy

• Organized crime features a structure and hierarchy. It often involves: violence, notoriety, longevity, recruitment, innovativeness, exclusive membership, and strict regulations.
• Activities of organized crime include ritualistic behaviors, profitability, corruption of political authorities, racketeering, infiltration of legitimate businesses, monopolistic behaviors and various criminal activities.

Organized Crime and Technology

• Organized crime exploits technology advancements for traditional crimes including extortion, fraud (bank, ATM/credit card, stock), money laundering, and human smuggling.
• These crimes also involve confidence scams (like the Nigerian 419 letter), fencing stolen property, data piracy, and counterfeit goods.

Cybergangs/Cyber-Criminal Organizations

•  These are groups brought together through the internet who participate in non-violent or violent criminal acts facilitated by exploiting networked or interconnected systems.

Confronting Contemporary Organized Crime

• Diverse, emerging groups are involved in contemporary organized crime, emphasizing economic motivations, like hacking and cyber-attacks.
• Financial institutions should consider "know your customer" policies to curb financial crimes, and traditional crimes are modified with improved technology.
• Transnational organized crime and terrorism are converging in their impact and methods.

The Intersection of Organized Crime and Terrorism

• Organized crime prioritizes economic gain, whereas terrorism focuses on ideology.
• Organized crime aims to subtly corrupt governments while terrorists want to replace the government for political change through acts. The use of organized publicity is a significant difference in these two criminal activities.
• Terrorists target victims indiscriminately, while organized crime targets specific outsiders.

Similarities in Organized Crime and Terrorism

• Sophistication and similar methodologies between them are increasingly common.
• Both groups utilize the internet for money laundering and communications
• Weak government controls, minimal regulations, and open borders aid in their activities.
• Locations that are far from the control centers of the government are exploited due to limited oversight and law enforcement resources.