Broadhurst, R., Grabosky, P., Alazab, M., Bouhours, B., & Chon, S. (2014). Organizations and Cyber crime: An Analysis of the Nature of Groups engaged in Cyber Crime. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 8 (1), 1-20.

The article examines the mother nature of groups, which are involved in cyber terrorism. It outlines the scope and definition of cybercrime, practical challenges in addressing what is already known about cybercrime offenders and the role of organized law-breaking groups. A secondary research method was employed, and the researcher employed examples of real cases illustrating group and individual behavior and what motivates typical offenders (Broadhurst et al., 2014). The research systematically reviewed the different literature and synthesized a new phenomenon.

The author’s major question is whether individual and organizational offenders pursue the same goals. Again, is there a relationship between organizational form and crime type? The researcher concluded that organizations portray a variety of goals some of which include sexual gratification of members, defiance of authority, technological challenge and freedom of information. Organizational structures are thus involved in cybercrime. Profit-oriented cybercrime activities require leadership, structure and specialization (Broadhurst et al., 2014). On the other hand, cyber-crime protest activities are less organized and lack a chain of command and thus weak. Individuals and organizational offenders do not pursue similar goals in that organizations are organized and are in most cases profit oriented. However, individual offenders are commonly protesters or portray defiance to authority.

The information makes made me understand that most cybercrime offenders take different organizational forms based on the goals. Profit-oriented offenders work in structured groups while protestors work in non-structured and weak groups.

Brown, C. S. (2015). Investigating and prosecuting cyber crime: Forensic dependencies and barriers to justice. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 9(1), 55.

This article looks at the loopholes created by technologies to facilitate cyber terrorism. A qualitative research approach was employed by the researcher. The researcher used existing academic literature highlights some of their shortcomings in argument and explains how such shortcomings can be solved. The author also utilizes the experience gained while serving in government agencies, police task force, international organizations and the private sector. By combining personal experience and existing literature, the author encourages policymakers to reevaluate strategies for combating cyber terrorism

The author’s main concern is the systemic obstructions, which affect prosecution, police investigations and legal interrogations. The use of technology to investigate a crime committed using technology is a challenge, and as technology develops, the police work becomes even harder. How can the police locate evidence stored in flash drives integrated with home appliances (Brown, 2015)? The researcher is concerned with such impediments to investigations and prosecutions and encourages the policymakers to come up with effective strategies to combat cybercrime.

The researcher found that there are several barriers to digital forensics interrogations, cybercrimes investigations and prosecutions. The study concludes that the dependency on technology makes it hard to fight cyber terrorism and thus the need for policymakers to come up with new strategies to combat crime. This conclusion made me reflect on how easy it can be for a technological expert to use technology in committing crime and then ensure that traces of such crime can only be found by an expert.

Gross, M. L., Canetti, D., & Vashdi, D. R. (2016). The psychological effects of cyber terrorism. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 72(5), 284-291.

This article examines the psychological effects to the ordinary citizens as a result of cyber terrorism. In this century, cyberterrorism has become a fact, and most ordinary people are worried about passwords and banking details and not about terrorist attacks. A set of two studies were done in Israel to determine the psychological effects. The first study was a field survey where 522 people were interviewed following a publicized attempt to execute an electronic Holocaust in 2015. In the second study done in 2016, participants viewed films describing different hypothetical attacks and were then surveyed on measures such as anxiety, perception, stress, anxiety, political militancy and enthusiasm to abandon privacy.

The author’s main argument is that the psychological effects of cyber threats to the common citizen can match those of traditional terrorism depending on who the victims and attackers are. Terrorists aim for both physical and mental destruction. The authors found that though cyberterrorism does not always lead to loss of life or injury, it increases stress, fear, anxiety, political militancy and hardline attitudes. In response, the common person is ready to abandon privacy in support of military vengeance to cyber terrorism.

The researcher concludes that cyber terrorism has many faces and the psychology of masses is different. Due to this, any cyber-terrorism, including the non-lethal have an impact on the affected population. When under attack, citizens, respond with not only fear and anxiety but also demands protection through military retaliation (Gross, Canetti & Vashdi, 2016). This information made me understand why politicians sway citizens into supporting military actions against other countries. They instil fear and anxiety by accusing other countries of cyber terrorism and promote retaliation through military action.

Jarvis, L., Macdonald, S., & Nouri, L. (2014). The cyberterrorism threat: Findings from a survey of researchers. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 37(1), 68-90.

The article examines the different perspectives on the threat posed by cyber terrorism. It attempts to examine how the global academic research community understands cyber terrorism. By applying a survey method, the researcher searched online databases for the relevant secondary sources and after sampling identified 118 sources from writers spanning 24 countries. The search was limited to publications since 2014, and these researchers received surveys. The snowball sampling technique was employed in identifying individuals who had already returned the survey.

The author considered three research questions including does cyberterrorism pose any threat, has a cyber terrorism attack ever occurred and countermeasures against cyber terrorism.  The authors found that there is a disagreement within the research community on cyber terrorism. There is no consensus on the extent to which cyber terrorism poses a threat to the potential targets or whether cyberterrorism has ever occurred. The root of the disagreements is mostly conceptual and because of competing logics of assessing threat. The author concludes that there is a potential distinctiveness of cyber terrorism (Jarvis, Macdonald & Nouri, 2014). Terrorism is the only cause of disagreement with researchers when it comes to definition. The researcher does not also agree on the labelling of cybercrime as terrorism as well as the probability of future attacks.

From this information, I feel that the research community is creating confusion among the common people. Without a proper definition, the common people cannot be able to identify what is cyber terrorism and what is not. This thus presents a problem in the identification and generation of countermeasures.

Jarvis, L., Macdonald, S., & Whiting, A. (2015). Constructing cyberterrorism as a security threat: a study of international news media coverage. Perspectives on Terrorism, 9(1).

This article examines how the media has constructed the threat of cyberterrorism. The article has considered the English speaking international news media. The secondary research method was used in that the researcher searched for news items using the keywords “cyberterrorism”, “cyberterrorism” and “cyber terror” generating 535 news items issued by 31 different media outlets in 7 countries for the period 2008-2013 and considered for this study. The items discussed included a variety of content from opinions, technology news, news stories on current affairs, art and culture and special reports (Jarvis, Macdonald & Whiting, 2015).

The researcher was concerned about how the media constructs cyber terrorism when reporting. The researcher was examining issues such as tone of coverage of cyberterrorism, geographical spread of the coverage, the imagery used, use of references and quotes, cyberterrorism threats and the level of coverage pitch. The article then focused specifically on the tone and volume of coverage as well its temporal and geographical distribution. The researcher found that the coverage of cyberterrorism by the media is geographically uneven but consistent in the tone with most items showing concern over cyberterrorism rather than scepticism.

The study concluded that contrary to the arguments of academic researchers, a considerable percentage of media content focuses on cyberterrorism. Again, the study also concluded that the media portrays real concern over the threat of cyberterrorism. This article made me feel that the risk of cyberterrorism has increased over the years, the fact that most of the international Media are publishing content based on this topic means it is an issue in the society.

Kenney, M. (2015). Cyber-terrorism is a post-stuxnet world. Orbis, 59(1), 111-128.

The author explores the confusion over cyberterrorism. The author argues that the concept of cyberterrorism remain misunderstood by many people.  Much of this confusion is due to the recent attempt to include the use of the internet to facilitate terrorist activities and hacktivism as cyber terrorism. The United States, for example, has faced many cyber-attacks over the last few years, but none of them has attained the level of cyber terrorism. This article thus explains the difference between cyber terrorism, cyber-attacks, hacktivism, cyber-warfare and the use of the internet by terrorists. The researcher used secondary sources to define and identify the differences between different terms.

The major argument of the researcher was that cyber terrorism might occur in the future, but currently, the threat is posed by hacktivism, online crime, and cyber-warfare. The author argues that cyber terrorism has never happened since most of the cyber-attacks, which occur; do not possess the four attributes of cyber terrorism. Cyber-attacks are not destructive rather they are disruptive and thus do not fit the definition of cyber terrorism. Though terrorists such as al Qaeda can use the internet to raise funds, recruit members or facilitate terrorist activities, such cannot be referred as cyber terrorism (Kenney, 2015). The researcher concludes that terrorists are more likely to cause more harm by using conventional weapons such as guns and bombs as opposed to cyber terrorism. Thus, the real threat lies in the ability of the terrorist group to use the internet in raising funds and recruiting members. As such, the dangers faced today are from cyber-crime and cyber-warfare hacktivism.

This information has laid down the confusion existing about cyber terrorism. Most ordinary people think cyber terrorism is the use of the internet to facilitate terrorist activities which as explained by the researcher is not.

References

Broadhurst, R., Grabosky, P., Alazab, M., Bouhours, B., & Chon, S. (2014). Organizations and Cyber crime: An Analysis of the Nature of Groups engaged in Cyber Crime. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 8 (1), 1-20.

Brown, C. S. (2015). Investigating and prosecuting cyber crime: Forensic dependencies and barriers to justice. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 9(1), 55.

Gross, M. L., Canetti, D., & Vashdi, D. R. (2016). The psychological effects of cyber terrorism. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 72(5), 284-291.

Jarvis, L., Macdonald, S., & Nouri, L. (2014). The cyberterrorism threat: Findings from a survey of researchers. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 37(1), 68-90.

Jarvis, L., Macdonald, S., & Whiting, A. (2015). Constructing cyberterrorism as a security threat: a study of international news media coverage. Perspectives on Terrorism, 9(1).

Kenney, M. (2015). Cyber-terrorism in a post-stuxnet world. Orbis, 59(1), 111-128.

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