A Student paper written by Jimmy Sproles and Will Byars for Computer Ethics at ETSU 1998

What is Cyber-terrorism?


Why do we care?

The idea of this site is to both illustrate the importance of understanding the dangers of cyber-terrorism, and provide information that can aid in that understanding. Computing professionals all over the world need to be aware of possible areas of weakness to such terrorism, in order to better protect their computer systems and possibly help put an end to terrorist activity. An important part of any profession is promoting the good name of that profession, but cyber-terrorist continue to give the computing profession a bad reputation. Thus, it is important for computing professionals to understand cyber-terrorism for the benefit of themselves, their profession, and society as a whole.

Because cyber-terrorism is an increasing problem in our society, everyone needs to be aware of what it is and what dangers it presents. A presidential committee (Summary of committee report) recently requested that the government upgrade its defenses against cyber-terrorists because of the increasing danger. (Related article from Also, with the emergence of newer e-mail clients that allow more active content to be displayed when messages are opened, it is becoming easier for terrorists to do damage to others' computers by means of viruses. Cyber-terrorism is a real danger to be looked into by not only computing professionals, but anyone who uses a computer network of any kind.

What is being done?



How can I protect myself?



Here are few key things to remember to pretect yourself from cyber-terrorism:

  2. Change the network configuration when defects become know.
  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 unkown address, don't access it. It could be trouble.

Some relavent ethical issues:

The ethical issues involved in cyber-terrorism are manifold. Any sort of crime or ethical violation can occur using a computer. Extortion of banks takes money from the banks, as well as their customers. The bank's, on the other hand, which many times refuse to admit to their inadequate defenses violate the public trust that the bank will be secure. The illegal altering medical records is unethical, as it can quickly and easily cause harm to another. Spreading disinformation is unethical in its lack of regard for the truth, as well as for the safety of and consequences on others who believe the misinformation. Altering, destroying, or stealing others data is a violation of their privacy. The ordinary hacker is guilty of lack of regard for the privacy of the peoples systems that he or she would enter. Hacking-for-hire is additionally illicit because they openly sell their services to break into others systems. For more information on ethical issues related to cyber-terrorism cases, go to our case studies page.


Case Studies Links to Other Sites Cyber-terrorism Statistics Resources Used for this Site

This site created by:

Jimmy Sproles and Will Byars