Man is the most important and intelligent creature of all the living beings. He is generally regarded as the ‘Social Animal’ and this is because of the fact that he is capable enough to understand the norms and apt procedures of the society. The society that he himself has made. He knows how to behave, interact and evolve accordingly in this society, thus, making him the wisest of all the other creatures.
Today’s terrorism differs from conventional terrorism in conventional terrorism terrorists employed methods such as the sword, the poison elixir, hand-thrown bomb, pistol, or the machine gun and plastic explosives to target government or civilians. But talking about the current scenario as far as neo terrorism is concerned, terrorists are employed with new tools and technology such as the internet, social media, highly sophisticated technologies to wage cyberwar against the democratically elected government and its people.
Humanity is just another philosophical term in the dreamy utopia of highly optimistic people. This selfish trait of our breed is one of the biggest reasons why we are having the problems of terrorism. As there is an increase in such instances of terrorism in the past 3 decades the concern of different governments around the globe has consequently increased. No matter in which part of the globe we live in, we cannot be indifferent to this fact that terrorism is like cancer which has to be cured in its initial stage or afterward it will only result in the death of the whole of humanity altogether. The internet, computers and mobile technologies have dramatically shaped modern societies. Though it is difficult to comprehend, less than a decade ago most of the individuals did not have cell phones or internet connection. Individuals could not text, and e-mail was uncommon. People used to wait an hour to access the Web. Today, most of the world now depends on computers or robots, the internet, and cellular technology. People now own personal computers, cell phone and portable internet connection which connects to the internet anytime and anywhere. It is amazing to consider that the world and humans behavior has changed so quickly through the use of technology. Now there are more than 2.2 billion internet users. The prefoliation of technology has led to distinct changes in how individuals engage with the world around them. The impacts of technology are evident across all demographic groups of modern society.
With all this digitalization and technological development, India is rapidly moving towards a digital ecosystem. The number of connected devices is not only increasing, but the Internet is reaching to the remotest areas of the country. We all are aware that India is ready for a digital future but is India truly prepared to handle the cyber-security risks and cyber-terrorism. There are huge gaps in India’s cyber-security infrastructure.
India ranked third on the list of countries where the highest number of cyber threats were detected. Second in terms of targeted attacks in 2017. India was ranked second globally when it comes to spam and phishing. Also, India ranks fourth globally with eight percent of global detections of ransomware.
The real danger to India lies in targeted cyber- attacks coming from adversarial nation states. Countries like China can bring immense assets to bear in carrying out sophisticated cyber-attacks. Cyber warfare is a growing threat — countries like China are expanding their capabilities. India must prepare for every eventuality, with the military at the forefront.[1]
As cyberspace plays an increasingly critical role in managing the everyday aspects of communication, critical infrastructure and government and military agencies are increasingly attempting to establish their role in cyberspace. Many industrialized nations recognize the threat that cyber attacks and cyber terrorism can pose to military and governmental infrastructure. Some consider cyberspace to new warfare domain just like land, sea, air, and space.[2] Although the weapons of cyberterrorism are different from that traditional terrorism, now terrorist utilize malware and hacking techniques in order to affect system functionally, access to information, or to spread terror. The outcomes and goals of the cyberterrorism, however, are similar to physical war in the fighters may attempt either targeted tactical strikes against a specific target or to try to cause as much damage as possible to the operational capacity of a national state.
Karin Tamar Schafferman in his article originally published in Hebrew in Parliament, the Israel Democracy Institute’s online journal, explains that fighting cyber-terrorism is “battling an enemy without borders”, a truly challenging phenomenon. She warns that the consequences of cyber-terrorism could, in fact, be more severe than acts of conventional terrorism.
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[1] D.S. Hooda, The New Front, Indian Express (Mar. 8, 2018),
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/cyber-warfare-indian-military-defence-cyber-attack-5089980/.
[2]Jason Andress, Steve Winterfeld, Cyber Warfare, Second Edition: Techniques, Tactics, and Tools for Security Practitioners, (2nd ed. 2011).
