Terrorists use new tools, old tactics

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/0626/web-terror-06-26-00.asp

BY Dan Verton
06/26/2000

Despite increasing concern about cyberterrorism, a report published
this month by a blue-ribbon panel of experts concluded that the
tactics and goals of the worlds terrorist organizations remain
low-tech.

The report, "Countering the Changing Threat of International
Terrorism," published by the National Commission on Terrorism,
suggests that although the terrorists toolbox has changed with the
advent of the Information Age, the objectives of the worlds terrorist
organizations have not.

"A growing percentage of terrorist attacks are designed to kill as
many people as possible," the report stated. "Guns and conventional
explosives have so far remained the weapons of choice for most
terrorists."

However, terrorists are adopting information technology as an
indispensable command-and-control tool, the report stated.

Raids on terrorist hideouts, for example, are "increasingly likely" to
result in the seizure of computers and other IT equipment, according
to the report. "Instead of just finding a few handwritten notebooks
and address books, counterterrorism authorities are faced with dozens
of CD-ROMs and hard drives," the report states. Likewise, terrorists
increasing use of advanced encryption tools often delays the process
of finding key files and information.

Terrorists groups, such as the Osama bin Laden organization, have yet
to demonstrate that they value the relatively bloodless outcome of a
cyberattack on the nations critical infrastructure, but the threat
remains real, said Richard Clarke, national coordinator for security,
infrastructure protection and counterterrorism at the National
Security Council.

"There are warning signals out there," said Clarke, who spoke last
week at a conference on cyberattacks and critical infrastructure
protection sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute for Public
Policy Research in Washington, D.C.

"If we fail to recognize this then we will pay a high price," he said,
adding that "we have the equivalent of enemy [surveillance] aircraft
flying over the target day after day."

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