Abstract
Terrorism, crime, and war are all familiar notions; however, the way in which these have been altered through cyberspace is not yet fully, nor unanimously, understood through definitions, theories, and approaches. Although the threat level of terrorism in the UK has lowered to moderate, the threat posed by cyber terrorism has nonetheless heightened throughout the COVID pandemic due to the greater necessity and presence of technology in our lives. This research aimed to highlight the necessity for a unanimous cyber terrorism definition and framework and further aimed to determine what perceptions are held by the general public regarding cyber terrorism through a mixed methods approach. The literature review confirms that there is an absence of a unanimously agreed upon definition of cyber terrorism, and furthermore that the existing academic definitions are not compatible with UK legislation. In addition, the literature review highlights an absence of a cyber terrorism framework that classifies what kind of terrorist activity is cyber enabled or cyber dependent. Quantitative data from the online survey find a couple of significant effects implying the necessity for greater diversity amongst stakeholders which could potentially enhance the detection and prevention of terrorism in the UK. The qualitative data find that although there is some agreement amongst the sample population in views held towards cyber terrorism, some misconceptions are nonetheless present which could have implications on the general public’s ability to identify and report cyber terrorist activity. Overall, the findings from the literature review and the primary data collection aid in developing a cyber terrorism definition that is compatible with UK legislative definitions, and further aids in developing a terrorist activity framework that succinctly highlights the inextricable links between traditional, cyber enabled, and cyber-dependent terrorism.
Highlights
Overview of ResearchFor almost up to 2 decades, the search for defining cyber terrorism has been described as the ‘Holy Grail’ for scholars and policy makers [1]
This research primarily aims to establish a concise definition of cyber terrorism and a suitable framework that clearly elaborates on terrorist and cyber terrorist activity to be considered by United Kingdom (UK) stakeholders
The literature review, paired with this research’s primary data collection, aimed to establish a current definition of cyber terrorism and framework approach which can be utilised by direct stakeholders involved in the prevention, detection, investigation, and prosecution of cyber terrorism within the UK
Summary
Overview of ResearchFor almost up to 2 decades, the search for defining cyber terrorism has been described as the ‘Holy Grail’ for scholars and policy makers [1]. There has been considerable research focusing on how cyber capabilities facilitate terrorism [3,4,5], there is significant disagreement surrounding what definitions and approaches should be used unanimously to facilitate in preventing, detecting, investigating, and prosecuting cyber terrorist threats by key stakeholders in the United Kingdom (UK) such as the police, prosecution services and policy makers and international stakeholders too This disagreement could be due to the notion that cyber terrorism as a term, houses a wide range of illicit behaviours including hacking and phishing, to sharing online propaganda, radicalising and recruiting individuals. The lack of a unanimous definition has further delayed a framework
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