Electronic terrorism targeting politicians, ordinary people

Mohamed Abdelghaffar

The world has not yet agreed on a single, specific or clear definition of ‘terrorism’.

Every researcher understands this phenomenon according to its determinants and the nature of his vision of things.

There are those who focus on the political vision of terrorism. Some other people focus on the economic vision of the phenomenon.

Although this confusion in coming up with a comprehensive concept of terrorism contributed to preventing the formation and building of a mechanism and a comprehensive vision at the global level to confront extremism, it positively contributed to besieging all forms of terrorism, whether at the economic, environmental, intellectual, electronic or other levels.

Electronic espionage

Electronic espionage is a form of technological terrorism. It is used to obtain secret information that can later be used to blackmail people and countries, or carry out extremist operations.

Nobody can ascertain that electronic espionage is only committed by terrorist groups and organizations. Major institutions practice this kind of technological terrorism as well.

Researchers define ‘technological terrorism’ as unlawful attacks or threats of attacks against computers, networks, or electronically stored information, directed to retaliate, extort, coerce, or influence governments, peoples, or the entire international community to achieve certain political, religious or social goals.

Some researchers believe that cyber terrorism refers to two basic elements: the Internet and terrorism.

This type of terrorism is growing in developed states which manage their infrastructure with electronic computers and information networks. This makes these states an easy target.

A terrorist attack can be launched to block vital sites, paralyze command and control communications systems, disrupt air defense systems, or control air, sea, and land navigation lines.

Electronic espionage is carried out due to several reasons, including the weak structure of information networks, which are built openly in order to facilitate and speed up users’ access to it.

However, this expansion contributes to the emergence of information gaps that are exploited by some parties to access unavailable and undeclared information through these information networks.