Combatting Cyber Terrorism - A guide to understanding the cyber threat landscape and incident response planning

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Security practitioners are increasingly confronted with a chilling phrase: cyber terrorism. For many, such as me, it conveys a sense of fear and hopelessness at the same time. What is this thing called ‘cyber terrorism’? Moreover, what can we begin to do about it? Until it hits us, the impact feels a million miles away. Another person’s nightmare. Another organisation’s problem. Another country’s war.

For the purposes of precisely understanding cyber terrorism throughout this book, we have borrowed and applied the National Cyber Security Centre’s core two principles used to define and characterise a cyber crime:

1. Cyber-dependent crimes – crimes that can be committed only through the use of information and communications ...