Billions have been spent on attacking global terrorism since the September, 11 2001 attacks including the military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. While the current efforts to track down terrorists who tote weapons of mass destruction and are responsible for nefarious deeds are certainly valid, a new attack has been waged on the U.S. and the enemies are winning.

What I’m talking about here, is Internet fraud and phishing attacks, a problem that has been largely ignored by the resource strapped U.S. government. It’s a problem that looks like a bunch of random thugs out to bilk money and steal the identities of unsuspecting Internet users. In reality it’s a coordinated foreign effort to bankrupt America.

American email in-boxes are stuffed full of phishing attempts asking users to verify their account details. Once the unsuspecting user divulges their banking information, the information is sold on the International black market. Federally insured deposit accounts are robbed and the U.S. government ends up footing the bill.

It’s a problem that is growing exponentially, and the result could result in distrust of American financial institutions, a drain on the treasury, and devastation that hasn’t been seen since the great depression. The goal of the 9/11 attacks was the same.

So who’s behind it? These cyber-terrorists sometimes hide behind compromised systems in Asia, and Europe or attack directly from countries such as Nigeria, where known terrorist cells operate. Considence?

The U.S. government is spending an astonishing amount of money and resources to knock on cave doors in Afghanistan and for the Iraq conflict and war on drugs in South America. But, very little has been done to root out cyber-terrorists. When Internet fraud and phishing crimes get reported to the government the response is usually a shrug and an explanation that there is really nothing that can be done since the crime originated from outside U.S. borders.

The war against cyber-terrorism can be won. The U.S. government needs to address this threat with as much vigor as the traditional war on terrorism. We need to employ an effort on the home front to quickly take down phishing websites by using brute force - to disable them. We need covert operations in these rouge countries to track down and prosecute.

APA Citation:
Smith, Nathan. M. (2007). Terrorists without Bombs: The New Threat from Cyber-Terrorists.
Retrieved May 16, 2008, from http://www.computer-forensic-technician.com/wordpress/terrorists-without-bombs-the-new-threat-from-cyber-terrorists/.