The fear surrounding cyberterrorism is that terrorists and other criminals could attack and penetrate our nation's critical infrastructure computer systems and endanger human lives by disrupting military networks, emergency medical services, land and air transportation systems, telecommunications and utilities. Cyberterrorists could also cause chaos and anarchy by attacking banking and other financial computer networks.

The U.S. Government has experienced several "break-ins" at military bases and other government computer sites, including a February 1998 break-in to 11 military computer systems at the Pentagon. The Department of Defense, in particular, has been the target of cyberattacks; it has reported that its Web sites experience about 60 cyberattacks a week. Although these attacks have been perpetrated by Internet pranksters, rather than terrorists trying to cause serious damage, they do demonstrate the vulnerability of our nation's computer systems. Consequently, lawmakers have become increasingly worried that foreign governments or terrorist groups could begin waging "information warfare" against the U.S.

Abroad, cybercrime has already assumed a political agenda. In August 1997, a group calling itself the Internet Black Tigers (affiliated with The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) claimed responsibility for E-mail harassment of several Sri Lankan missions around the world. The group claimed in Internet postings to be specialists in "suicide e-mail bombings" with the goal of countering the Sri Lankan Government.

Elsewhere, Internet saboteurs defaced the Home Page of, and stole E-mail from, India's Bhabha Atomic Research Center in May and June 1998. The three anonymous saboteurs claimed in an Internet interview to have been protesting recent Indian nuclear blasts. In July, the leader of a Chinese "cracker" group (a cracker is someone who breaks into a computer or system with the intention of causing harm) that claimed to have temporarily disabled a Chinese satellite in 1997 announced he was forming a new global cracker organization to protest and disrupt Western investment in China.

And, in September 1998, on the eve of Sweden's general election, saboteurs defaced the Web site of Sweden's right-wing Moderates political party and created links to the Home Pages of the left-wing party and a pornography site. That same month, other saboteurs rewrote the Home Page of a Mexican Government Internet site to protest what they said were instances of government corruption and censorship. Analysts have referred to these examples of cybercrime as low-level information warfare.

Next: Response to CyberTerrorism