Cyber-Terrorism and Its forms

Defining Cyber Terrorism is similarly difficult to define the term Terrorism itself and many scholars, States, and institutions not have been agreed on any broader term but they are somehow satisfied that there is a universal aspect of cyber-terrorism which is the threat it poses to the safety and security of any state and its people through the modem of internet space. Many Cyber experts agreed on broad definitions which are here,

1. The Manipulation of Cyber-Space with the intentions to carry out the acts of causing harm to the State's established Cyber Structures or to cause damage to any public presence in Cyber-Space and to use Cyber-Space to Carry out the various propaganda and the ultimate goal of those acts to create chaos and fear among the people and further spread the extremist ideological views to other members of society through using electronic gadgets like computers and other electronic devices.
2. The Utilization of the Internet with the help of computers and electronic devices to cause harm to the State and in its functionality or cause damage to the public and create fear among the people with the intention of achieving the political, religious, and ideological goals. and advancing their terrorism goals with the help of the internet is called Cyber-Terrorism. It is The convergence of Cyber-Space and Terrorism.

We examined the various definitional terms of cyber terrorism like what it could contain how it varies and what are the ways through which it can cause disturbances in the functioning of the state. Now it is time to elaborate on them further so it could get easy to grasp the idea of it.

The ongoing era of digital technology opened thousands of ways for the prosperity of human beings but at the same time, it created various opportunities for the non-state actors to continue their political agendas in almost unregulated cyber-space.

After the emergence of cyber-space terrorists, extremists, religious fundamentalists, and ideological extremists created huge space for themselves on the internet and through that created presence they almost with full impunity carried out the nefarious activities such as recruitment by the terrorist entities through brainwashing tactics and collecting funds with the help of well-planned campaigns and advanced their ideologies and tried to legitimize their acts.

Similarly, Religious fundamentalist and right-wing nationalists mobilized their support in cyber-space and inflict terror on local people and on minorities through violence. The violence on these groups multiplied just because the cyber-space provided them with unbridled power to manipulate the opinions of people without much effort.

How it should be stopped from further getting worse?

This question very important because the criminal and terrorist entities adopting themselves with the changing battlegrounds and the law and enforcement agencies of developing countries such as Pakistan is lack such abilities to stop them before getting too late, answer to the question is that the support and cooperation from the developed countries to developing countries so they too upgrade themselves in accordance with required technological expertise to stop such organizations from carrying their nefarious agendas easily. Otherwise, this whole scenario has the ability to engulf even developed countries in it.

The State has to realize that the battleground has long ago shifted from traditional space to cyber-space where all actors with nefarious agendas are operating with impunity due to an unregulated system. So it needs to change the way of its dealing and give required training and equip its law enforcement bodies with efficient technology. Last but not least, the global mechanism for regulating such space is imperative because without the global no nation can fight the menace efficiently. The online platforms must be part of such global cooperation.