Addressing IPS Officer Trainees 2015, Home Minister Rajnath Singh alerted them to new phenomenon of cyber terror and cyber crime as the negative gifts of spectacular revolution in information technology for contemporary society. He has termed both as the biggest threat of present times. It is but natural that Police officers shall have to equip themselves with knowledge of all facets of this type of terror and crime.
Without any doubt, the emergence of the Internet and its wide-range spectrum of opportunities have influenced considerably the terrorists’ methods and behaviour. One can identify three main objectives of cyber terrorism: (a) organizational includes recruiting, instigation training, fundraising, communication, planning, spying etc. (b) undermining: to hinder the normal functioning of computer systems, services, or websites (c) through the use of computer technology and the Internet, the terrorists seek to inflict destruction or damage on tangible property or assets, and even death or injury to individuals. In 2008, the Stuxnet worm sabotaged an Iranian nuclear plant. The Iranian Government cast the blame on the joint efforts of USA and Israel. The latest cyber attacks on Saudi Aramco, RasGas, and US banks are considered as a strike back from the Iranian side.
Cyber crimes are to be differentiated from cyber terror. An increasing number of criminals are attracted by cybercrimes, because these types of crimes are convenient, anonymous, quick, diverse, and relatively low-risk. In the past, cybercrimes were committed by individuals or groups without decent organization, whilst nowadays organized crime structures and highly-trained professionals are deeply involved in this lucrative criminal activity. According to Interpol intelligence, just in the years 2007 and 2008, the damage from cybercrimes worldwide in numbers was evaluated at approximately 8 billion USD. In addition, the negative impact that corporate espionage brought on the intellectual property business worldwide was estimated at 1 trillion USD (Interpol, 2012).
The definition with examples has been given above with the purpose of keeping authorities alive to the nature of threat to humanity posed by cyber technology if used negatively.
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