Internet terrorism: new trends and challenges

Recently, I have experienced an increase in organizations questioning how real is the threat of Internet terrorism and what they can do to protect themselves. As a former CISO, this was one of the last concerns that crossed my mind, especially since it was a daily up-hill battle getting buy-in for the most basic security controls and services. The notion of worrying about the potential risk of terrorism against my organization seemed to be the lowest priority given the choices at hand. Ironically, terrorism today seems to be an emerging concern in the commercial world and many are actively pursuing methods and technology to help combat the problem. As a result, I began to research this trend to determine its drivers and potential implications to information security as we know it today.

I have been able to identify two main factors to date that play a part in the increased concern for businesses. Governments all around the globe are spending vast amounts money trying to track and contain internet terrorism. As former government security professionals are landing executive roles as CSO and CISO in organizations, the awareness and education about terrorism is increasing and the company is driven to investigate the threat further. Also, the news media is making Internet terrorism and the targeted attacks front-page news, which impacts a much larger audience. The combination of these factors propels companies and their leadership to ask the important questions in order to determine the risk it presents, especially in the critical industries like utilities and supply chains.