What is cyber terrorism?

The term terrorism, in general, refers to the act of violence, threats, creating fear and havoc against people or property. The intention is to intimidate societies or governments for political or ideological reasons. On the other hand, cyberterrorism is these unlawful actions but using cyberspace. There exists a fine blurry line between cyberterrorism and cyberwar. When cyberterrorism is performed by a state or its proxies against other states, this is often referred to as cyberwar. Cyberwar is mainly directed towards governments and military networks. Furthermore, an act of cyber espionage does not constitute cyberwar or cyberterrorism. Ironically, lately, we have witnessed groups of hackers engage themselves in cyberwars. For example, the hacker group Anonymous voluntarily started a war with Russia to punish them for their wrongdoing against Ukraine. Could we call the actions of Anonymous a cyberwar, a cyber protest or simply cyber terrorism? Based on the definition of cyberterrorism, without doubt, we would call it cyberterrorism. This leaves us with another question: What is the difference between cyber protest and cyberterrorism? If Anonymous would only disrupt Russia’s government websites and not dump military records on the internet, this would be an act of cyber protest.

Example of Cyberterrorism:  SolarWinds attacks

SolarWinds is a software solution provider for IT service providers. In early 2020, SolarWinds systems were breached. Hackers secretly added malicious code into the company’s software system. The malicious code was then distributed to SolarWinds customers in March 2020 when SolarWinds sent out updates to its customers. The updated software, which included a hacked code, created a backdoor to SolarWinds customers, allowing the hackers to broaden their attacks. According to SolarWinds, up to 18,000 of its customers installed the updates, leaving them vulnerable to those hackers

See also: What is Cyberwarfare?