Prospects of Information Technology in reference to Cyber Terrorism

Abstract

The modern world that we live in is often called a global village. Technology has annihilated time and distance and thus has brought everything at the spur of a click. The world run on information technology where internet is the lifeline for the flow of information, business and governance. This information technology revolution has been endowed with its own possibilities and perils. Cyber-terrorism and Cyber-crimes are the ugly fallouts of the free access to internet with which societies and states are
grappling with the world over. Cyber terrorism is an organized criminal activity committed by one person or group of persons or countries to disturb a genuine economic or political transaction. It could involve the planning and execution of attacks on networks, computer systems, and telecommunications infrastructures, as well as the electronic exchange of information and the making of threats. Examples include hacking into computer systems, inserting viruses into vulnerable networks, defacing websites, launching denial-of-service attacks, or making terrorist threats through electronic communication. If cyber criminals are today's equivalent of the small-time thugs who prey on the gullible and innocent, the cyber terrorists are those organized groups which have their own agenda to destabilize the regimes by wreaking a terror havoc. This they have to do no longer with killing innocent people by bullets and bomb blasts. This they do by targeting those centres of power which ensure a smooth functioning of our world as we know it. The study undertaken in this paper highlights the various aspects and threats of this problem and the possible way outs at the disposal of the governments to curb and annihilate this monster.