Internet Terrorism

The Global Village and its Hazards

In recent years, the Internet has created an unparalleled ability to link the world closely and to expand the concept of a universal community, or a global village. Information technology and wireless networking have an instant, effective, and international outreach—for some people, just by using a few mouse clicks. Physical boundaries or geographical borders are not as defined, protective, or relevant as they were before the electronic revolution. Telecommunications and digital data saving, including documents, voices, scripts, maps, live images, and diagrams, are being transmitted rapidly and accurately to all corners of the earth. However, people, agencies, and infrastructures have begun to feel extremely vulnerable in the face of possible intrusions by hackers and have anxiously attempted to update their protective measures by continually redesigning their security techniques. It seems that the war between the virus-attack campaigns and the antivirus fortifications is being waged endlessly. The enormous scope of the World Wide Web and the endless possibilities of its use and application have opened countless doors for equally monumental risks and global dangers.

Soon after the exponential growth of Internet technology, and following its utopian promises to make the world a much better place, severe hazards and serious challenges began to surface—aggressive and violent contents, lack of personal safety and security, the spread of extremist organizations, intrusive advertisements, blurred lines between personal opinions and professional resources, and the explosion of pornography, among others.

Among the timely and hot topics discussed recently, within political, social, cultural, military, and religious circles, is the subtle use of Internet by many overt and covert groups for the sake of spreading their fanatic, extreme, radical, and militant ideas. Any assembly or company can use the Internet as a platform to promote its own agenda or products. With the overwhelming number of websites and link pages available, however, it is almost impossible for readers to sort out such a magnitude of data and flood of information or to screen all the sources, contents, applications, and sites' legitimacy. Certain militant groups have relied on the approach [Page 330]called asymmetric thinking, using advanced computer technology to design, plan, and execute a big threat or a major attack of great magnitude, such as al-Qaeda's use of commercial airplanes as missiles, a tactic that had never been deployed before. Asymmetric warfare relies on untraditional and unconventional use of applied technology to interrupt the pace of contemporary modern life and reshape the flow of events in society.

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