Chapter 1 - Introduction

Abstract

This chapter introduces a book on cyber adversary characterization. The ever-increasing emphasis and reliance on the use of computers and the Internet has come in hand with the increased threat of cyber crime. Many systems and infrastructures are exceedingly vulnerable to attacks, as the complexity of computer networks is growing faster than the ability to understand and protect them. Typically, characterizations of cyber adversaries fall into one of the two categories: theoretical and post-incident (actual or forensic) characterization types. This chapter documents several case studies that are either based on real events containing partially fictitious information or accounts of actual incidents. The term cyber terrorist falls under the same media buzzword umbrella as black hat and even the overused and abused hacker. The idea that a so-called cyber terrorist can compromise the security of a computer system and cause actual bodily harm as a direct result of the system compromise, even in today's world, is somewhat far-fetched, where many compromises have only resulted in defacements of sites or temporarily downed servers.