CYBER-TERRORISM – HOW MUCH OF A THREAT IS IT? - Cyberwar-Netwar: Security in the Information Age - page 57

the intent and the means to exercise any of this type of attack. When we have that we
should be able to detect the intent before it happens and react before it happens. But this
involves a different type of technology. That is what I would call a layer defence. In the
US, it could be the North American Aerospace Defence Commander. I believe that the
former Soviet Union also has a similar technology. We need this to prevent network
attacks.
Vellone : We have started to agree about the need to have some definition for
international and national laws but it seems to me that we have ended this discussion with
many cyber concepts such as cyberwar, cyberterrorism, etc. It makes it a very
complicated and complex issue. I think that we have to extrapolate terrorism from the
cyberwar concept because otherwise we will never end the discussion of this problem.
The problem of terrorism is very much of today. I would put just one provocative
question. Portugal is a very peaceful country, but it will host in 2004 the European
Football Cup. There could already be some action in course to arrange something
sinister although we certainly do not wish for anything like that. But is this kind of
activity cyberterrorism or not? Is the use of cyberspace by terrorists really
cyberterrorism? We cannot give an immediate response and answer directly with our
definition today, because we have to consider a lot of other things in a different context.
It is my opinion that today the use of cyberspace is a threat to the civil community. We
have talked about security but we have to see that today there are no differences between
intelligence for the offensive and security defence, because they have to work together.
They have to see in advance what may happen in the future. But this concept brings
another important question; are the nations ready to accept some activity to fight against
the use of cyberspace? We still have groups in our nations who talk about Big Brother.
Can we implement all the useful technology to detect the activity of terrorists in advance
of their actions? I think that we need to define a much better word, in order to arrive at
an international agreement for a regulation which will allow also a single nation to put in
place all the contra-measures for this kind of attack. Most experts believe that Al Qaeda
will not make cyberterrorism in the sense we have mentioned today. Because although
cyberterrorism may be very devastating, for the goal the terrorists want to achieve they
still need bombs and psychological pressure. Cyberterrorism could only be an adjunct to
their traditional activities. We have to fight this adjunct with additional international and
national regulatory laws.
Erez : As a consulting company we came to the Eurocup organisations in Portugal to
try to discover their needs for any terrorist activities. The answer was to let sleeping
dogs lie. Portugal is a quiet country with no terrorism. They forgot one thing - Portugal
is not the target. The target could be the British, or the Russians or the Italians or the
Turkish, if they had not already lost. To fight terrorism you have to be totally
unconventional and this is just one of the problems of the fight against terrorism.
Mounier : We were speaking about research and technology against terrorism and
what NATO could do. I am a representative from France, a country which belongs to
NATO, and as a former officer assigned to the NATO RTA. The Research and
Technology Agency of NATO in Paris was delegated by the NATO Secretary General to
study research and technology against terrorism. There are three thousand experts from
NATO countries who meet very often and who study all the technical aspects of