Cyber Terrorism Essay, Research Paper
For my term paper, I researched on Cyber Terrorism. I believe that Cyber Terrorism is a big problem in our society and may even be a worldwide problem for all humanity today. I want to do my term paper on Cyber Terrorism because I had some personal experience with this sort of terrorism. About a two years ago, I encountered a Hacker on America Online. I opened an unknown message in my mailbox that was titled Free Nude Teens . Then about a couple weeks later, we received all sorts of bills that had to be paid. My father received bills for many different things such as electronics, clothes, and other items that had been purchased under our account on the Internet. My father was so pissed off because he thought that my brothers or I had purchased all those items. So we called the Company and found that our computer had been hacked into. And the so called hacker purchased items on our account number. And we found that the hacker gained entry by a message that I had opened . So we ended up paying only a thousand dollars out of almost six-thousand dollars worth of goods purchased on America Online. I want to do my research paper on Cyber Terrorism because I want to stress to people that this is a big problem and will become worse in the future since everything is being done in Cyber Space these days.
In this research paper, I will prove that hackers gain power and publicity with crimes they commit through cyber space. And it is easy for even amateur hackers to gain information and money from powerful organization without any detection or suspicion. Hacking is also a costly and destructive force for people in Cyber Space. Cyber Terrorism is such a destructive force that our country lost millions of dollars to hacking terrorists from other countries.
I know that Cyber Terrorism is becoming problem as a fact because I found that ninety-six percent of all illegally hacked computers are not detected. Just that one sentence says a lot about how unstoppable the force of Cyber Terrorism is.
Hacking has become such a problem in today s computer dependent society that stronger measures must be implemented to stop hackers, and if hackers are still successful, they should be severely punished. Hackers are a problem because with the amount of businesses and corporations we depend on every day, we can t have hackers breaking in our systems because it causes so much problems with peoples jobs, and sometimes can cost us lots of money. And so many people rely on computers to get around, communicate and keep track of the things they have to do, when a hacker breaks into a system, it can sometimes temporarily ruin someone s life.
Cyber Terrorism can come in all sorts of ways through Cyber Space and it is defined in many different ways. Cyber Terrorism can come in the form of misinformation. Hacking is a good example of Cyber Terrorism. An example of hacking would be hacking into a hospital computer system and changing someone s medicine prescription to a lethal dosage as an act of revenge. Cyber Terrorism is a more popular form for terrorist because they don t have to use guns or bombs for destruction. Cyber Terrorism could be defined as the use of computing resources to intimidate or coerce others. To the FBI, Cyber Terrorism is defined as the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives. But some people know cyber terrorism as information warfare which means the ability to unleash horror and devastation with a few well-aimed strokes on a computer keyboard.
Most hackers break into computers not to wreak havoc, but simply to explore and share information with one another. A small minority, however, do wish to create mischief. These individual are the ones who have the public fearing hackers. They are responsible for the Media calling hackers criminals. These individuals and gangs purposely break into computers for personal financial gain, or to turn your six thousand dollar state of the art computer into a six thousand dollar paperweight. A hacker in Road Runner can easily glide into an unprotected PC. There, they can potentially get credit card numbers and other valuable goodies. Hackers have no distinguishing characteristics. Your next-door neighbor could be a hacker, as could your niece or nephew, one of your co-workers, or even your best friend. Not all hackers are dangerous and out to destroy business or damage lives. The view of the general public toward hackers is mixed. A recent CNN poll shows twenty-three percent of respondents labeling hackers as useful, fifty-two percent seeing them as a menace, and the majority which is twenty-five percent sees hackers as both useful and a menace.
To almost all professionals the actions of hackers are despicable and justify all sorts of nasty punishments. I fully agree that hacking is a criminal offense and should be prosecuted. The only thing that bothers me from a moral standpoint is that these criminals are essentially the cyberspace equivalent of teenage vandals. They do not know the implications of what they are doing. These people are displaying, vandalism, and their actions are random, yet predictable. Many professionals argue that the cause why hackers hack is about the same as any other criminal. It mostly has to do with their families, and friends and the environment they grew up in. I agree with professionals at this point and I believe that the issue goes back to how they are raised. I am not saying that these people have bad parents. I think that while parents go around telling their children not to do drugs, to study hard in school, etc., they do not tell their children that it is bad to break into computer systems. Parents don t think of discussing it. This leaves teenagers to learn about hacking on bulletin boards, chat lines, and many other places. Hackers learn their morals from other hackers.
Hacking has been developed over the years to be unstoppable. Newcomers to the hacking community learn the rules by associating with established hackers. Hackers like to hack in order to impress each other.
Hackers also do not know about the cost results of their actions. All studies show that hackers are generally young, and do not have full-time jobs or own property. They do not consider that if they do get into a system and make an unintentional, simple mistake, they could cost the company thousands, and possibly millions of dollars. I think that every computer professional, including the best, have mad a mistake that has caused the loss of data, service or money. Young hackers do not know what a System Administrator is faced with on a day-to-day basis, and neither do they realize the problem they cause for already overworked people.
The art of computer hacking has grown since the computers first started to appear. Despite the growing trend of hacking, very little research has been done on the hacking world and its culture. The image of a computer hacker has grown from a harmless nerd into a vicious techno-criminal. Although hacking is a growing trend in our society, it is not one that is accepted in the United States or any other country. In the past, hackers were basically known as just computer experts. Nowadays hacker means the same thing as a cracker, a person who pirates software, and malicious hackers. There are hackers out there that will do there best to harm any system they can, national security documents the bad hackers as dangerous, they may gain access to classified information.
There is a number of things that our country is realizing about Cyber terrorism. In 1998, president Clinton created the Commission of Critical Infrastructure Protection. This protects the innocent and helpless from hackers and gives them the right over the power of Cyber Terrorists. Also in many government organizations, they have formed some type of group to deal with cyber terrorist and block them from stealing money as well as information. The CIA created its own group, called the Information Warfare Center, with one thousand people and twenty four our response teams, their computers are the hardest to penetrate. And just recently, a blue-ribbon commission unveiled a detailed report on national security, calling for sweeping changes in the way the government handles what it calls a significant and growing threat of terrorism in the U.S. One of the panel s main recommendations is for President Bush to create a new Cabinet-level National Homeland Security Agency to handle prevention, response and recovery to terrorist incidents. And Bush administration officials say they will look closely at the commission s recommendations. But the proposal for a National Homeland Security Agency is sure to stir controversy, because it will take resources away from some well-entrenched agencies. But the deputy national security adviser, said agencies simply need better cooperation in the fight against terrorism, no another new agency.
Internet security has gotten better and better by the year. It is hard for even the best of hackers to break into a computer due to the strict security and punishment. Although, if hacking is done, and a hacker is caught, the consequences are sometimes not that wonderful. Most hackers caught breaking into anything more than a personal system are prosecuted and face a large fine or a jail sentence.
Hacking has become such a wide spread trend that it is considered as a common crime such as murder, theft, and drugs. It is so common that even a thirteen-year-old can easily learn how to hack into systems. On America Online, I found over a hundred web sites dedicated to teaching people the steps to hack. They even have chat rooms for hackers to share their hacking knowledge with each other. For example, I found a web site called the Anarchist Cookbook. It shows you step by step, how to hack into all kinds of computer systems. And they make it sound exciting by telling you the kind of pleasure you could gain from it like money, power, and just simple fun which would attract bored teens at home.
Computer Terrorism can be defined in all sort of ways. Hacking is a good example of Cyber Terrorism. Hacking is basically stealing information illegally through a computer. The FBI defines terrorism as the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives. An example of hacking is hacking into a hospital computer system and changing someone s medicine prescription to a lethal dosage as an act of revenge.
Computer terrorism is such an unstoppable force that there is little that we can do to stop hackers from getting into our common household computers. Through household computers, viruses could be spread so rapidly, that the U.S. could easily be taken out within three weeks. There are some things that you can do to prevent from being hacked into. Many people now use Anit-Virus software that can prevent people from using programs that have been tampered with that could cause damage to a system. Although there is some basic steps you could do to prevent being hacked into. 1) All accounts should have passwords and the passwords should be unusual and difficult to guess. 2) Change the network configuration when defects become visible. 3) Check with venders for upgrades and patches. 4) Audit systems and check logs to help in detecting and tracing an intruder. 5) If you are ever unsure about the safety of a site, or receive suspicious email from an unknown address, don t access it. But there is a new method of prevention, which is constantly being improved upon is the dongle. It was devised and developed by Bell Labs. The dongle is a calculator-sized machine, which gives a new password to the user every time he or she logs onto the Internet. This device would protect your personal computer from any outside intruder who wouldn t want to spend their time breaking down your information. Though, eventually hackers would want to be able to break those codes. It still is an important stride in the fight against hackers. An annoying, and time-consuming idea is encrypting all transmissions from computer to computer. One thing is for sure, all these devices will not keep a determined hacker out of a system, and these defenses won t be cheap to buy.
Hackers need to be stopped because of the severe problems they can cause. Hopefully, people will soon realize the consequences of computer hacking and will stop. With all the problems it causes, something has to be done.
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