Chapter Overview
This chapter argues that debates around the threat posed by cyberterrorism have been dominated by a focus on issues relating to technological potentialities. To balance this, it focuses on the ‘terrorism’ aspect of cyberterrorism, arguing that it is important to situate cyber attacks within an analysis of terrorist interests and options. Doing so, it argues, leads to a far more optimistic forecast of the likelihood of cyberterrorism than is common, for four reasons. First, the costs of cyber attacks—although difficult to estimate—are vastly higher than those of non-cyber equivalents, such as car bombings. Second, terrorist groups typically lack the mastery to carry out successful cyber attacks which are exponentially more difficult than non-cyber terrorism. Third, the destructive potential of non-cyber attacks can be far more readily materialised than that of cyber attacks. And, fourth, cyberterrorism lacks the theatricality of more conventional attacks and therefore is likely to be less desirable to terrorist groups. Taken together, these four arguments indicate that cyberterrorism remains far less likely than is frequently supposed.
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‘Squirrel Power!’ This 2013 New York Times article is perhaps my favourite shut-down-the-power-grid-scenario detailing as it does the very real threat posed by Kamikaze squirrels! http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/01/opinion/Sunday/squirrel-power.html?pagewanted = all&_r = 0
Dr. Thomas Rid of King’s College London’s Department of War Studies explains the concept of cyberterrorism and explores the risks associated with militants conducting attacks through the Internet (7 mins). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = cPTPpb8Ldz8
Video (2 h 10 min) of UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee hearing on cyber attacks on 17 November, 2010 with contributions from, amongst others, Prof. Ross Anderson, University of Cambridge; Professor Bernard Silverman, Chief Scientific Adviser, UK Home Office; Dr Steve Marsh, Deputy Director, Office of Cyber Security, UK Cabinet Office; Professor Mark Welland, Chief Scientific Adviser, UK Ministry of Defence. http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId = 7009
Video (2 h 11 min) of UK Public Accounts Committee hearing on cyber security on 13 March, 2013 with contributions from, amongst others, Prof. Sadie Creese, Professor of Cybersecurity, Oxford University; Dr. Thomas Rid, Kings College London; Mark Hughes, Managing Director of Security for British Telecom; Oliver Robbins, Deputy National Security Adviser, UK Cabinet Office. http://www.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/house-of-commons-21784442
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Conway, M. (2014). Reality Check: Assessing the (Un)Likelihood of Cyberterrorism. In: Chen, T., Jarvis, L., Macdonald, S. (eds) Cyberterrorism. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0962-9_6
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