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PART ONE: UNDERSTANDING OUR CYBER ENVIRONMENT
Part One is composed of three chapters. They explore the current cyber
environment in which societies, militaries, and transnational elements operate.
This includes potential threats created by new technologies.
Chapter One questions whether the term Information Age is the correct
name for the contemporary environment and examines how the subjective
nature of war has evolved. The chapter then looks at the military concept of
information operations and examines how cyber activities assist terrorists and
criminals in conducting operations, recruiting new followers, and manipulating
the activities of law enforcement and military officials trying to capture them.
Security officials everywhere must study these unintended consequences of the
cyber environment closely.
Chapter Two examines how al Qaeda has exploited the cyber
environment and infrastructure that the civilian world has provided. Al Qaeda
uses the net to conduct cyberdeception, cyberrecruiting and cybertargeting
activities. Also examined is the manner in which terrorists use the Internet as a
base of operations and some of the cyber-related dangers of the contemporary
security environment.
Chapter Three examines further how terrorists use the Internet as a
cybermobilization instrument and how terrorists use the Internet to conduct
guerilla warfare online. These are two overlooked aspects of the cyber threat
that need to be understood by organizations contemplating conflict with a savvy
foe.
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