Cyber Terrorism

Abstract

Cyber terrorism has become a real threat to society. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime classifies cyber terrorism into six categories: propaganda (for the purposes of recruitment, incitement, and radicalization), financing, training, planning, execution, and cyberattacks. Cyber terrorism is in fact acts of terrorism that are “cyber-enabled”, using cyberspace or cyber technologies to perpetrate acts of terrorism against civil aviation, maritime navigation, and targeted victims, among others. The 2010 Beijing Convention and Protocol on aviation security are the first international conventions that specifically mention perpetration by “any technological means” to commit an act of terrorism. However, the other existing sectoral conventions dating back to the early 1960s can also be interpreted to suppress cyber terrorism in various ways. Some regional organizations, including the European Union, have taken steps with efforts to harmonize domestic law to combat international terrorism in line with the sectoral conventions. International cooperation to suppress cyber terrorism requires criminalization of acts that constitute cyber terrorism, extradition of offenders, and mutual legal assistance in criminal matters. Punishing online incitement to commit an act of terrorism, apologies for or glorification of terrorism may create a problem in that it might encroach upon the right to freedom of speech or expression recognized under the constitution of various States and protected by the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other international human rights instruments.