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

Forms of Cyber Terrorism

9-11

Who are the Cyber Terrorists?

12-13

Some Major Incidents of Cyber Terrorism

14-15

Cyber Terrorism and the Indian Law

16-17

Conclusion

18-19

Bibliography

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20

ABSTRACT
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 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,
cyber-attacks, 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, sending and receiving messages,
communications, controlling machines, 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
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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
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. Cyberattacks 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.

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INTRODUCTION
The term "cyber terrorism" is relatively new and 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 weve seen with changing
time, the scope and boundaries of cyber terrorism have grown enourmously.
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
1

Special Oversight Panel on Terrorism (Denning, May 23, 2000)

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generate fear. Attacks that lead 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.

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FORMS OF CYBER TERRORISM

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, 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 Administration by the Supreme Court.
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(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.
(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)

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Targeted scanning, probing and reconnaissance of networks and IT

infrastructure, which can be a pre-cursor to hacking and focused

attacks and total or partial disruption of e-governance, public and

banking services.
(ii)
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.
(iii) 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.
(iv) Large scale SPAM attacks which can target entities like internet service
provider networks, large corporate networks or key government
networks.
(v)
Identity Theft Attacks including large-scale spoofing, phishing and
social engineering attacks which can target users of banks, large ecommerce organization, key e-governance entities, etc. and lead to
loss of sensitive personal data, monetary loss and loss of image and
trust.
(vi) Domain name server attacks which can target country level domain
registry systems like NIXI .1N" registry
(vii) 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-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;
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 cyber-attack.
Parasites are small computer programs that remain in computer systems and
slowly corrupt the system and its backups, thus, damaging the information in
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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 Korea2, the Estonia 2007 cyber-attacks 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.
In India, 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
2

Syed Balkhi: 25 Biggest Cyber Attacks in History

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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 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 emails 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 AND 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
(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,
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damage to properties, disruption of civil services which are essential to the life
of a community, and also affects the critical information infrastructure.
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
copyright3.
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 has been designated as the nodal agency under Section 70A of the
IT Act.

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

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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.
Currently there are no fool proof ways to protect a system. The completely
secure system can never be accessed by anyone. Most of the militaries classified
information is kept on machines with no outside connection, as a form of
prevention of cyber terrorism. Apart from such isolation, the most common
method of protection is encryption. The wide spread use of encryption is
inhibited by the governments ban on its exportation, so intercontinental
communication is left relatively insecure. The Clinton administration and the FBI
oppose the export of encryption in favour of a system where by the government
can gain the key to an encrypted system after gaining a court order to do so. The
director of the FBI's stance is that the Internet was not intended to go unpoliced
and that the police need to protect people's privacy and public-safety rights
there. Encryption's drawback is that it does not protect the entire system, an
attack designed to cripple the whole system, such as a virus, is unaffected by
encryption.
Others promote the use of firewalls to screen all communications to a system,
including e-mail messages, which may carry logic bombs. Firewall is a relatively
generic term for methods of filtering access to a network. They may come in the
form of a computer, router other communications device or in the form of a
network configuration. Firewalls serve to define the services and access that are
permitted to each user. One method is to screen user requests to check if they
come from a previously defined domain or Internet Protocol (IP) address.
Another method is to prohibit Telnet access into the system.
Now its high time to take action. It is a fact that counter terrorists are duty
bound to save property and lives. We all are increasingly connected, dependent
and vulnerable. With combination of knowledge, responsibility and expertise, a
counter- cyber terrorism team can build an effective policy for preventing cyber
terrorist incidents, managing threats and responding to Cyber- Terrorist acts. So
now we agree the fact that the traditional concepts and methods of terrorism
have taken new dimensions, which are more deadly and destructive in nature.
The damage so produced would be almost irreversible and most catastrophic in
nature. The law dealing with cyber terrorism is however not adequate to meet
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the precarious intentions of these cyber terrorists and requires a transformation

in the light and context of the latest developments all over the world. The laws
have to take care of the problems originating at the international level because
the internet, through which these terrorist activities are carried out, recognizes
no boundaries. Thus a cyber-terrorist can 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.

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

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