How Modern Terrorism Uses the internet Research Paper

How Modern Terrorism Uses the internet - Research Paper Example The Internet provides terrorists with several advantages. For example, terrorists could operate in a clandestine manner from a distance. Such endeavors could be across national and continental borders, and could be conducted without fear of detection or regulation. The expenditure and risk involved in cyber – attacks are significantly lower than a physical attack. Furthermore, cyber – attacks tend to attract the attention of the media to a considerable extent (Why Terrorists Use the Internet, 2005). These advantages are off setted by several disadvantages. For instance, the intricacy and distributed nature of the Internet makes it very difficult to control a terrorist attack and achieve the sought for objectives. Terrorist attacks on the Internet chiefly cause economic damage, and there is very little scope for employing such attacks to cause physical harm (Why Terrorists Use the Internet, 2005). As such, a terrorist attack that does not entail death and injury attracts less attention and is therefore less effective in spreading terror. Moreover, terrorists host websites that display terrifying videos of their brutal murders. One such video showed the brutal killing of an American journalist by the Islamic terrorists. The Islamic terrorist group, Al Qaeda employs advanced communication technology in conjunction with multimedia, in order to engage in a highly sophisticated form of psychological warfare (Weimann, 2004). The al Qaeda has unremittingly declared; via its websites that its attack on the World Trade Center served to significantly damage the US economy, in addition to causing severe psychological damage to the populace. This contention has been borne out to some extent by the weakening of the dollar and the diffidence generated in the US economy, at the national and international level (Weimann, 2004). Moreover, the Internet provides a convenient means for raising funds for not only political organizations, but also terrorist groups. In a ddition, terrorist groups employ the Internet to recruit and mobilize cadres. Terrorist organizations not only use the various web technologies to enhance their allure, but they also collect information about the entities that browse through their websites (Weimann, 2004). In addition, technical information regarding the manufacture and use of explosives is readily available on the Internet. For instance, there are several websites that post The Anarchist Cookbook and The Terrorist’s Handbook. These are detailed manuals for manufacturing a vast array of explosive devices (Weimann, 2004). A major use of the Internet made by terrorist groups is for planning and coordinating terrorist attacks. The September 11 attacks were witness to the large scale use of the Internet by the al Qaeda to mount its murderous attacks. A large number of encrypted messages were retrieved by federal officials from the computer of the al Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah, the monster who had masterminded t hese iniquitous attacks (Weimann, 2004). Realizing the benefit being derived from the Internet, by the terrorists, the US Government embarked upon a counterterrorism strategy. This strategy was aimed at infiltrating the message boards of the Islamic terrorists. In addition, the staunch ally of the US, namely the UK was successful in hacking an English language online magazine of the al Qaeda (Ackerman, 2011). Moreover, in the UK, the Home Office had proposed that filtering software was