ONE OF THE BIGGEST THREATS TO

THE FUTURE IS GOING TO BE

CYBERTERORISM
-BILL CLINTON IN DECEMBER 2000

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The success and final outcome of this project required a lot of
guidance and assistance from many people and I am extremely
fortunate to have got this all along the completion of my
project work. Whatever I have done is only due to such
guidance and assistance and I would not forget to thank them.
But foremost I thank Dr. Golak Prasad Sahu, my Information and
Technology Law professor, for giving me an opportunity to do
the project work on "Cyber Terrorism" and I am extremely
grateful to him for providing all the support and guidance. I
would also like to thank the almighty God and my other friends.
Thank you.

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CONTENTS
TOPIC
PAGE NO.
Abstract
4-5
Introduction
6-7
Reasons for the Surge in Cyber Terrorism
8
Forms of Cyber Terrorism
9-11
Who are the Cyber Terrorists?
13-14
Some Major Incidents of Cyber Terrorism
15-17
Indian Law on Cyber Terrorism
18-19
Latest Case Laws
20
Cyber Terrorism Laws in Different Countries
21

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How to Combat Cyber Terrorism

22
Conclusion
23
Bibliography
24

ABSTRACT
The Modern Thief can steal more with a computer than
with a gun. Tomorrows terrorist may be able to do more
damage with a keyboard than with a gun.
Over the past few decades, the world has seen a drastic and
momentous change. It has become a global village thanks to
the ever-developing science and technology. The access to
internet has grown manifolds over the last few years and even
second and third world countries are now very well connected
with the internet. The benefits of internet are uncountable and
it has brought revolutionary changes to the world. One of the
greatest changes has been the growing connectivity between
4 | Page

all corners of the world via the Internet. In many ways, this
has been a boon to humanity. However, there is also a dark side
to this achievement.
If internet can act as a boon to millions, it can also prove to be
a huge destructive weapon in nefarious hands. Internet can be
put to some very bad usages and such usages have been rising
meteorically over the past few years. Cyber-crimes, cyberattacks, espionages, hacks and even cyber terrorism has gone
rampant.
Computers and the internet are becoming an essential part of
our daily life. They are being used by individuals and societies
to make their life easier. They use them for storing information,
processing

data,

communications,

sending
controlling

and

receiving

machines,

messages,

typing,

editing,

designing, drawing, and almost all aspects of life. The deadliest

and most destructive consequence of this helplessness is the
emergence of the concept of cyber terrorism. The traditional
concepts and methods of terrorism have taken new dimensions,
which are more destructive and deadly in nature. In the age of
information & technology, the terrorists have acquired an
expertise to produce the deadliest combination of weapons and
technology, which if not properly safeguarded in due course of
time, will take its own toll. The damage so produced would be
almost irreversible and most catastrophic in nature. In short, we
are facing the worst form of terrorism popularly known as
"Cyber Terrorism". The expression "cyber terrorism" includes an
intentional negative and harmful use of the information
technology for producing destructive and harmful effects to the
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property,

whether

tangible

or

intangible,

of

others.

For

instance, hacking of a computer system and then deleting the

useful and valuable business information of the rival competitor
is a part and parcel of cyber terrorism.
There has also been a rapid spread of computer viruses,
worms, Trojans and other malware. As the world has become
more and more dependent on Internet, the dark side of the
Internet has also grown very powerful. Cyber-attacks are now
not only limited to individual cybercrimes, but even the events
related to cyber terrorism have seen a vast surge. This
assignment examines cyber terrorism, one of the major
negative consequences of the Internet. It also examines the
potential impact of cyber terrorism, its possible methods, its
prevention, and control.

INTRODUCTION
The term "cyber terrorism" was coined by Barry Collion and is
relatively new. It is often used in day-to-day parlance. However,
if you ask people to define it, you can expect a slightly different
definition every time. It is relatively hard to define cyber
terrorism and confine its boundaries within a frame, because as

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weve seen with changing time, the scope and boundaries of

cyber terrorism have grown enormously.
The definition of "cyber terrorism" cannot be made exhaustive
as the nature of crime is such that it must be left to be inclusive
in nature. The nature of "cyberspace is such that new methods
and technologies are invented regularly; hence it is not
advisable to put the definition in a straightjacket formula or
pigeons hole. In fact, the first effort of the Courts should be to
interpret the definition as liberally as possible so that the
menace of cyber terrorism can be tackled stringently and with
a punitive hand. The law dealing with cyber terrorism is,
however, not adequate to meet the precarious intentions of
these cyber terrorists and requires a rejuvenation in the light
and context of the latest developments all over the world.
Cyberterrorism is described by FEMA as an unlawful attack and
threats of an attack against computers done to intimidate or
coerce a government or its people in furtherance of political or
social objectives. A cybercrime is a crime that targets
computers and usually includes theft of intellectual property or
deliberately disrupting a process. A cyberattack is a malicious
attack on a computer network. Security experts caution that all
U.S. federal agencies should pay close attention to
cyberattacks because malicious actors do not distinguish
between military and civilian targets.
The most widely cited paper on the issue of Cyberterrorism is
Dennings Testimony before the Special Oversight Panel on
Terrorism (Denning, 2000)1. Cyberterrorism has been
defined here as:
Cyberterrorism is the convergence of terrorism and
cyberspace. It is generally understood to mean unlawful
attacks and threats of attack against computers, networks, and
the information stored therein when done to intimidate or
coerce a government or its people in furtherance of political or
social objectives. Further, to qualify as cyberterrorism, an
attack should result in violence against persons or property, or
at least cause enough harm to generate fear. Attacks that lead
1 Special Oversight Panel on Terrorism (Denning, May 23, 2000)
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to death or bodily injury, explosions, plane crashes, water

contamination, or severe economic loss would be examples.
Serious attacks against critical infrastructures could be acts of
cyberterrorism, depending on their impact. Attacks that disrupt
nonessential services or that are mainly a costly nuisance
would not.
Cyber terrorism is the premeditated use of disruptive activities,
or the threat thereof, in cyber space, with the intention to
further social, ideological, religious, political or similar
objectives, or to intimidate any person in furtherance of such
objectives.
To sum it up, we can describe "cyber terrorism" as the
premeditated, politically motivated attack which uses
computers and IT to cause large-scale disruption or
widespread fear. The main targets of these attacks are
computer operated infrastructure (Critical Information
Infrastructure) and other facilities that are critical in nature
such as that of e-government systems, financial
institutions, military installations, power plants, air
traffic controls, water systems, etc.

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REASONS FOR THE SURGE IN CYBER

TERRORISM
Cheaper than traditional methods.
It is very difficult to track
Cyber
terrorists
can
hide

their

personalities and location.

There are no physical barriers or check
points to cross.
Cyber Terrorism can be done remotely
from anywhere in the world.
Cyber Terrorism can be used to attack a
big number of targets.

FORMS OF CYBER TERRORISM

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Cyber terrorism can take many forms, and the increasing use of
IT means that anything can be its target. Some of these
possibilities of Cyber Terrorism have been outlined herein:
(I) Privacy violation:
The law of privacy is the recognition of the individual's right to
be let alone and to have his personal space inviolate. The right
to privacy as an independent and distinctive concept originated
in the field of Tort law, under which a new cause of action for
damages resulting from unlawful invasion of privacy was
recognized. In recent times, however, this right has acquired a
constitutional status, the violation of which attracts both civil as
well as criminal consequences under the respective laws. The
intensity and complexity of life have rendered necessary some
retreat from the world. Man under the refining influence of
culture, has become sensitive to publicity, so that solitude and
privacy have become essential to the individual. Modern
enterprise and invention have, through invasions upon his
privacy, subjected him to mental pain and distress, far greater
than could be inflicted by mere bodily injury. Right to privacy is
a part of the right to life and personal liberty enshrined under
Article 21 of the Constitution of India. With the advent of
information technology, the traditional concept of right to
privacy has taken new dimensions, which require a different
legal outlook. To meet this challenge recourse of Information
Technology Act, 2000 can be taken. The various provisions of
the Act aptly protect the online privacy rights of the citizens.
Certain acts have been categorized as offences and
contraventions, which have tendency to intrude with the
privacy
rights
of
the
citizens.
(II) Secret information appropriation and data theft:
The information technology can be misused for appropriating
the valuable Government secrets and data of private
individuals and the Government and its agencies. A computer
network owned by the Government may contain valuable
information concerning defence and other top secrets, which
the Government will not wish to share otherwise. The same can
be targeted by the terrorists to facilitate their activities,
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including destruction of property. It must be noted that the

definition of property is not restricted to movables or
immovable alone as held in the case of R.K. Dalmia v Delhi
Administration2 by the Supreme Court.
(III) Demolition of e-governance base:
The aim of e-governance is to make the interaction of the
citizens with the government offices hassle free and to share
information in a free and transparent manner. It further makes
the right to information a meaningful reality. In a democracy,
people govern themselves and they cannot govern themselves
properly unless they are aware of social, political, economic and
other issues confronting them. To enable them to make a
proper judgment on those issues, they must have the benefit of
a range of opinions on those issues. Right to receive and impart
information is implicit in free speech. This, right to receive
information is, however, not absolute but is subject to
reasonable restrictions which may be imposed by the
Government
in
public
interest.
(IV) Distributed denial of services attack:
The cyber terrorists may also use the method of distributed
denial of services (DDOS) to overburden the Government and
its agencies electronic bases. This is made possible by first
infecting several unprotected computers by way of virus
attacks and then taking control of them. Once control is
obtained, they can be manipulated from any locality by the
terrorists. These infected computers are then made to send
information or demand in such a large number that the server
of the victim collapses. Further, due to this unnecessary
Internet traffic the legitimate traffic is prohibited from reaching
the Government or its agencies computers. This results in
immense pecuniary and strategic loss to the government and
its agencies.
It must be noted that thousands of compromised computers
can be used to simultaneously attack a single host, thus
making its electronic existence invisible to the genuine and
legitimate citizens and end users. The law in this regard is
crystal clear.
2 AIR 1962 SC 1821
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(V) Network damage and disruptions:

The main aim of cyber terrorist activities is to cause networks
damage and their disruptions. This activity may divert the
attention of the security agencies for the time being thus giving
the terrorists extra time and makes their task comparatively
easier. This process may involve a combination of computer
tampering, virus attacks, hacking, etc.
Few Other Modes of Cyber Terrorism:
(i)

(ii)

(iii)

(iv)
(v)

(vi)
(vii)

Targeted scanning, probing and reconnaissance of

networks and IT infrastructure, which can be a precursor to hacking and focused attacks and total or
partial disruption of e-governance, public and banking
services.
Large scale defacement and semantic attacks on
website which can lead to national embarrassment,
total or partial disruption of services, dissemination of
false or misleading information, etc.
Malicious code attacks, like virus, worms, trojans and
bonnets, which can target large and key national and
economic databases like tax information networks,
citizen databases or hospital information systems. and
control systems of sectors like power, petroleum,
transport and air.
Large scale SPAM attacks which can target entities like
internet service provider networks, large corporate
networks or key government networks.
Identity Theft Attacks including large-scale spoofing,
phishing and social engineering attacks which can
target users of banks, large e-commerce organization,
key e-governance entities, etc. and lead to loss of
sensitive personal data, monetary loss and loss of
image and trust.
Domain name server attacks which can target country
level domain registry systems like NIXI .1N" registry
Application level attacks, i.e., exploitation of inherent
vulnerabilities in the code of application software like
the web, mails or databases, which can target e-

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governance, e-commerce, business and banking

applications.
(viii) Infrastructure attacks, i.e., Attacks such as denial of
service attacks, distributed denial of service attacks,
corruption of software and control systems such as
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) and
Centralised or Distributed Control System (DCS),
Gateways of internet service providers and data
networks, infection of programmable Logic Control (PLC)
systems by sophisticated malware such as Stuxnet,
leading to total or partial disruption of services or
activities in one or more critical sectors such as energy,
transport, telecommunications and emergency services.
(ix) Router Level attacks which can target gateway/ Internet
service provider routers, routers of large and key
economic. targets like bank networks and corporate
networks and Wi-Fi Routers used by small offices and
home users, which can lead to total or partial disruption
of internet traffic or online economic activities.

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WHO ARE THE CYBER TERRORISTS?

Cyber terrorism potentially can be carried out by anyone with
access to the Internet. This includes anyone with a computer
(and a modem), and as the technology becomes more
sophisticated, may include anyone with cellular phones,
wireless personal digital assistant (PDAs), and other wireless,
handheld devices.
The next cyber terrorist may be a world away or right next door
as long as they have Internet access and the requisite
knowledge. Accordingly, cyber terrorists may be domestic or
foreign, with few limits on their actual location. Cyber terrorists
may act alone, as members of terrorist groups, or as proxies for
terrorist groups. For example, in Hanover, Germany, in the
1980s, criminal hackers hired out their services to a terrorist
group. Potential cyber terrorists also may include disgruntled
current or former employees of a variety of private or public
institutions. Cyber terrorists are likely to be very comfortable
using computers and the Internet. In everyday life, people use
the tools that they know and are comfortable with, including
tools for criminal or destructive activities. As the Internet
becomes an increasingly more central part of daily life, future
terrorists increasingly will be more likely to use the Internet to
plan and carry out terrorist activities. Why endanger ones life
with explosives or weapons of mass destruction when you can
sit in front of a computer and attack your enemy with almost
total anonymity?
Today, most criminal hacking, or cracking, is accomplished by
one of three methods:
DoS (denial of service), in which the attacker overloads
the server and shuts the system down;
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 actual destruction of information (although erasure of

information usually is difficult to do effectively if their
backup systems are in place); and
alteration of information, or spoofing (which is more
difficult to safeguard against, but also can be mitigated
with the use of backup systems).
Hackers are able to access computers via a number of routes,
including poorly protected passwords, liberal access privileges,
or dormant accounts of former employees. Hacking is
facilitated by laxly enforced security policies (Copeland 2000).
Currently, parasites are of great concern as a type of cyberattack. Parasites are small computer programs that remain in
computer systems and slowly corrupt the system and its
backups, thus, damaging the information in the system. These
parasitic programs can cause systems to perform the wrong
tasks.
They also can spoof data, thus causing record alterations with
troublesome effects. Much of the basic knowledge needed to
carry out acts of cyber terrorism is readily available through the
Internet. Many hacking tools can be downloaded freely from the
Internet through quick and easy searches. The beginner
requires only knowledge of English and the capability to follow
directions.

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SOME MAJOR INCIDENTS OF CYBER

TERRORISM
The increasing reports of cyber terrorism in India and around
the world indicate the wide range of facilities which are
vulnerable to it because of the use of IT. Reports of cyber
terrorism around the world include the July, 2009 cyber-attacks
against the US and South Korea3, the Estonia 2007 cyberattacks and the Georgia 2008 cyber-attacks where the Internet
servers, government and political agencies, e-banking services,
etc., were attacked through distributed denial of service
attacks, mass e-mail, spamming and website defacements.
Another form of cyber-attack was the landing of a US
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in Iran by a spoofing attack
through the feeding of false information to the drone. Apart
from these, the onset of viruses like Stuxnet and Duqu which
are directed at industrial sabotage are a major concern.
Alarmingly, the Stuxnet virus was first used to attack Tehran's
nuclear programme, which destroyed its nuclear centrifuges by
attacking the PLCs in 2010.
The two major attacks in India that shook the country and
involved cyber terrorism are:
26/11 Mumbai Attacks: Terrorists communicated with
handlers in Pakistan through Callphonex using VoIP (Voice over
3 Syed Balkhi: 25 Biggest Cyber Attacks in History
16 | P a g e

Internet Protocol). The accused communicated to terrorists with

an email id Kharak_telco@yahoo.com which was accessed from
10 different IP addresses.
Ahmedabad Bomb Blast (26-07-08): A mail with id
alarbi_gujrat@ yahoo.com was being sent by a group of
Terrorists. Person named Kenneth Haywoods unsecured WIFI
router in his house was being misused by terrorists. 3 more
mails were sent after the blast with the same misuse of
unsecured WIFI routers.
Apart from this various other cyber-attacks similar to those
described above have been carried out. A total of 90 in 2008,
119 in 2009, 252 in 2010 and 219 in 2011 Indian government
websites have reported to have been hacked. Currently, the
Delhi police has been directed by the courts in an application
(titled Tanikella Rastogi Associates v. State) under Sections
156(3) and 200 of the Criminal Procedure Code to investigate
the hacking of hundreds of Indian and international websites,
including critical government websites, by Pakistan based
group of hackers PakcyberEaglez.
Another example is the hacking of the systems of the Defence
Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in 2013. This
led to the leak of thousands of confidential documents relating
to Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), the country's highest
decision-making body on security affairs to a server in China.
The use of computers in the carrying out of the 26/11 attacks in
Mumbai intensified the need for a legislation dealing with cyber
terrorism, and this was part of the reason for the passing of the
Amendment Act which introduced the provisions dealing with
cyber terrorism. However, these provisions are still inapplicable
to the actual use made of the IT by the terrorists, who did not
attack the computers or IT systems, but, instead exploited
them to aid their purpose. For instance, conventional cell
phones and VoIP were used to command and control the attack,
Google Earth was used to plan the mission, a picture posted on
the Internet of commandos landing on the roof of the hotel was
used by the terrorists to ambush the attack and the computer
databases of the hotel were accessed to identify and kill guests
from other countries like the US and UK65. The use of
computers in the 26/11 attacks indicates an indirect from of
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cyber terrorism, where the easily and publicly available

information on computers was used for perpetrating terrorism.
Few other global notable incidents of cyber terrorism are
mentioned below:
In 1998, ethnic Tamil guerrillas swamped Sri Lankan
embassies with 800 e-mails a day over a two-week period. The
messages read "We are the Internet Black Tigers and we're
doing this to disrupt your communications." Intelligence
authorities characterized it as the first known attack by
terrorists against a country's computer systems.
During the Kosovo conflict in 1999, NATO computers were
blasted with e-mail bombs and hit with denial-of-service attacks
by hacktivists protesting the NATO bombings. In addition,
businesses, public organizations, and academic institutes
received highly politicized virus-laden e-mails from a range of
Eastern European countries, according to reports. Web
defacements
were
also
common.
Since December 1997, the Electronic Disturbance Theatre
(EDT) has been conducting Web sit-ins against various sites in
support of the Mexican Zapatistas. At a designated time,
thousands of protestors point their browsers to a target site
using software that floods the target with rapid and repeated
download requests. EDT's software has also been used by
animal rights groups against organizations said to abuse
animals. Electro hippies, another group of hacktivists,
conducted Web sit-ins against the WTO when they met in
Seattle in late 1999.
One of the worst incidents of cyber terrorists at work was when
crackers in Romania illegally gained access to the computers
controlling the life support systems at an Antarctic research
station, endangering the 58 scientists involved. More recently,
in May 2007 Estonia was subjected to a mass cyber-attack by
hackers inside the Russian Federation which some evidence
suggests was coordinated by the Russian government, though
Russian officials deny any knowledge of this. This attack was
apparently in response to the removal of a Russian World War II
war memorial from downtown Estonia.
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INDIAN LAW ON CYBER TERRORISM

Section 66F along with Sections 70, 70A and 70B comprise
the sections of the IT Act dealing with cyber terrorism. Section
66F reads as follow:
(1) Whoever, (A) with intent to threaten the unity, integrity, security or
sovereignty of India or to strike terror in the people or any
section of the people by
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(i) denying or cause the denial of access to any person

authorized to access computer resource; or
(ii) attempting to penetrate or access a computer resource
without authorisation or exceeding authorized access; or
(iii) introducing or causing to introduce any Computer
Contaminant.
and by means of such conduct causes or is likely to cause
death or injuries to persons or damage to or destruction of
property or disrupts or knowing that it is likely to cause damage
or disruption of supplies or services essential to the life of the
community or adversely affect the critical information
infrastructure specified under section 70, or
(B) knowingly or intentionally penetrates or accesses a
computer resource without authorisation or exceeding
authorized access, and by means of such conduct obtains
access to information, data or computer database that is
restricted for reasons of the security of the State or foreign
relations; or any restricted information, data or computer
database, with reasons to believe that such information, data or
computer database so obtained may be used to cause or likely
to cause injury to the interests of the sovereignty and integrity
of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign
States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to
contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence, or
to the advantage of any foreign nation, group of individuals or
otherwise, commits the offence of cyber terrorism.
(2) Whoever commits or conspires to commit cyber terrorism
shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to
imprisonment for life.
From the above definition, it could be inferred that, cyber
terrorism is an act of hacking, blocking and /or computer
contaminating in order to restrict legally authorized persons to
access computer resources in general, and /or to gain or obtain
unauthorized access to any information which is a restricted
information for the purpose of security of the state, or foreign
relation etc. These are gruesome acts which is done with an
intention to threaten the security, sovereignty and integrity of
India or strike terror in the minds of people or a section of
people; and which may result in death and injury to people,
damage to properties, disruption of civil services which are
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essential to the life of a community, and also affects the critical

information infrastructure.
Essential Ingredients of Section 66F:
There should be criminal intention of cyber terrorist
The accused cyber terrorist must deny or cause to deny
any authorized person access to computer resource
Such conduct causes death or injury to any person or
property
The cybercriminal accesses restricted information data or
computer database which are important for the security of
the state or its foreign relations.
Critical Information Infrastructure
Section 70 of the Information technology act, 2000 (amended
in 2008) describes protected system and regulations related to
it as follows: (1) The appropriate Government may, by
notification
in
the
Official
Gazette, declare any
computer resource which directly or indirectly affects the
facility of Critical Information Infrastructure, to be a protected
system. Explanation: For the purposes of this section, "Critical
Information Infrastructure" means the computer resource, the
incapacitation or destruction of which, shall have debilitating
impact on national security, economy, public health or safety.
Critical Information Infrastructure is a computer resource, the
incapacitation or destruction of which will have debilitating
impact on national security, economy, public health or safety.
Declaration as protected system even amounts to copyright 4.
National Nodal Agency
The National Nodal Agency is the body designated by the
central government for the purposes of protection of the Critical
Information Infrastructure, including research and development.
The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection
Centre (NCIIPC) of the National Technical Research Organisation

4 B.N.Firos v. State of Kerala, AIR 2006 Ker 279

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has been designated as the nodal agency under Section 70A of

the IT Act.

LATEST CASE LAWS

Kumar v/s Whiteley (2013) In this case, the accused gained
unauthorized access to the Joint Academic Network (JANET) and
deleted, added files and changed the passwords to deny access
to the authorized users. Investigations had revealed that Kumar
was logging on to the BSNL broadband Internet connection as if
he was the authorized genuine user and made alteration in the
computer database pertaining to broadband Internet user
accounts of the subscribers. The CBI had registered a cybercrime case against Kumar and carried out investigations on the
basis of a complaint by the Press Information Bureau, Chennai,
which detected the unauthorised use of broadband Internet.
The complaint also stated that the subscribers had incurred a
loss of Rs 38,248 due to Kumars wrongful act. He used to
hack sites from Bangalore, Chennai and other cities too, they
said.
The Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai,
sentenced N G Arun Kumar, the techie from Bangalore to
undergo a rigorous imprisonment for one year with a fine of Rs
5,000 under section 420 IPC (cheating) and Section 66 of IT Act
(Computer related Offense).
Sanjay Kumar vs State of Haryana (2013): The accused
was also looking after the Software System of a bank. He had
access to their accounting system which was computerized and
was also in a position to enter into ledgers and various other
accounts. He manipulated the entries by forging and fabricating
certain entries. He fraudulently issued cheques in his favour
and illegally withdrew Rs.17,67,409/- from the bank. The Court
held him guilty under Sections 65, 66 and 72 of the Information
and Technology Act, 2000.
Very recently, a threat email was sent to the BSE and NSE on
Monday. The Mumbai police and the Cyber Crime Investigation
Cell are jointly probing the case. The suspect has been detained
in this case. The police said an email challenging the security
agencies to prevent a terror attack was sent by one Shahab Md
with an ID sh.itaiyeb125@yahoo.in to BSEs administrative
email ID corp.relations@bseindia.com. The IP address of the
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sender has been traced to Patna in Bihar. The ISP is Sify. The
email ID was created just four minutes before the email was
sent. The sender had, while creating the new ID, given two
mobile numbers in the personal details column. Both the
numbers belong to a photo frame-maker in Patna.

CYBER TERRORISM LAWS IN DIFFERENT

COUNTRIES
U.S.A: The U.S. Patriot Act, 2001 and USA Freedom Act, 2015
describe cyber terrorism as forms of hacking causing damage
to protected computer networks of citizens, legal entities or
governmental authorities including damage to computer
system used by governmental agency to manage defence or to
assure national security.
Singapore: The Computer Misuse Act, 1998 describes cyber
terrorism as the use of information and technology which
affects the security, defence or international relations of
Singapore or disrupts any services directly related to
communications infrastructure, financial and banking services,
public utilities, transportation or public key infrastructure.
Pakistan: Section 17 of the Prevention of Electronic Crime
Ordinance, 2007 provides whoever, commits the offence of
cyber terrorism and causes death of any person shall be
punishable with death or imprisonment for life, the Prevention
of Electronic Crime law will be applicable to anyone who
commits a crime detrimental to national security through the
use of a computer or any other electronic device, it lists several
definitions of a terrorist act including stealing or copying or
attempting to steal or copy classified information necessary to
manufacture any form of chemical, biological or nuclear
weapons.

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HOW
TO
TERRORISM?

COMBAT

CYBER

Cyberterrorism has become a huge menace in the past few

years. Since internet has become more popular, the number of
cybercrime and cyber terrorism incidents have increased by a
manifold. The convenience with which a cybercrime can be
committed from the comforts of ones house or without even
setting foot in the country makes it even more dangerous.
A global effort has to be made if cyber terrorism has to be
curbed properly. More international conventions on cyber
terrorism like the Budapest Convention on Cyber Crime,
2001 need to be held for ensuring mutual cooperation between
nations to stop cyber terrorism.
However, there are a few things that we can do to limit and
prevent cyber terrorism:
Maintain high alert & vigilance.
Update OS and applications regularly.
Enforce strong passwords.
Lock down" systems.
Keep anti-virus software installed and up-to-date.

Employ intrusion detection systems and firewalls.

Be cautious about opening email attachments.
Complete Software Updates
Create difficult passwords
Download anti-virus software

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 Uninstall unused applications or services

CONCLUSION
The menace of cyber terrorism is not peculiar to any particular
country as the it is global in nature. The countries all over the
world are facing this problem and are trying their level best to
eliminate this problem. The problem, however, cannot be
effectively curbed unless popular public support and a vigilant
judiciary back it. Also, there is a need for mutual co-operation
on the global level as cyber terrorism transcends all boundaries
and it cant be curbed without the mutual co-operation among
different countries and the global organisations.
Cyber terrorism is a scary concept for many reasons. It can do
possible serious damages to various aspects of our lives. It is
even scarier that cyber terrorism is so difficult to catch and
track and prosecute. The information age has brought us many
good things, but along with those good things came some bad
things too. All we can do as citizens is to protect ourselves by
protecting our information, who we give it to and how much we
give it out.
We, however, must understand that the law dealing with cyber
terrorism will never be adequate to meet the precarious
intentions of the cyber terrorists. With the rapid growth in
technology, they will always stay a few steps ahead of us.
For a effective solution, the laws have to take care of the
problems originating at the international level because the
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internet, through which these terrorist activities are carried out,

recognizes no boundaries. A cyber-terrorist can easily collapse
the economic structure of a country from a place with which a
country may not have reciprocal arrangements, including an
extradition treaty. The only safe guard which is available to
us is to use the latest technology to counter these problems.
Thus, we understand that a good combination of the latest
security technology and a law dealing with cyber terrorism is
the need of the hour. Currently there are no fool proof ways to
protect a system but our government is trying to do its part, so
lets support them and their efforts and stop this cyber battle.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rastogi, Anirugh, Law of Information Technology and
Internet, 1st Edition, Lexis Nexis Publication
Sharma, Vakul, Information Technology, Law and Practice,
4th Edition, Universal Law Publishing
Syed Balkhi: 25 Biggest Cyber Attacks in History
http://www.cyberlawsindia.net/
https://www.symantec.com/avcenter/reference/cyberterror
ism
www.academia.edu

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