The Alarming Reality of Cyberterrorism

Following the heinous attacks that caused the Twin Towers to fall in New York on September 11, 2001, you heard about terrorism every single day for years. The “War on Terror” waged for over a decade toppled multiple governments and set a precedent that terrorists will be relentlessly pursued. While there have been a few massive terrorist events that have shocked the world in the subsequent years after 9/11, cyberspace has become one of the biggest battlegrounds. Today, we’ll briefly discuss the rise of cyberterrorism.

What is Cyberterrorism?

It’s actually not a term you will hear used very often, simply because there are literally millions of cyberattacks that happen every single day,y and whittling down what is terrorism versus what isn’t turns into a semantic argument that actually takes focus away from the problem. Cyberterrorism is hacking that is carried out by organizations (or individuals) that aim to hurt public services. This includes government institutions, utilities, and other services aimed at promoting public welfare. 

NATO has its own definition, that will give you a good idea about what we’re referencing:

“A cyberattack using or exploiting computer or communication networks to cause sufficient destruction or disruption to generate fear or to intimidate a society into an ideological goal."

This definition sounds harmless, but as you will see below, it can be a true act of war.

Examples of Cyberterrorism

While not labeled “terrorism” by officials, there have been many attacks against critical infrastructure by nation-backed hacking groups. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples:

In November of 2024, Chinese hackers going by the name Salt Typhoon, were able to breach dozens of telecommunications companies from all over the world, including eight in the United States. It was a part of a massive espionage and intelligence collection. It is believed that although it was discovered late in 2024, that it goes back several years. These hackers were able to scrape and steal data from law enforcement and interfere and intercept private communications of several nations’ government officials. Breaching the communications of the highest levels of foreign governments may not seem like terrorism, but in the past, something like this would be an act of war. 

In October 2024, as a part of the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine, Russian-backed hackers sent email bomb threats to 60 Ukrainian embassies worldwide as well as to some media outlets. With the situation they are in, it caused evacuations and fear. This didn’t amount to anything other than a coordinated subterfuge, but if you are a worker at a Ukrainian embassy, you probably deal with the uneasy reality that your enemy has made these threats.

In the spring of 2020, the government of Costa Rica was effectively shut down by a ransomware attack carried out by a pro-Russian group, Conti. The group demanded $10 million to release the information which was stolen from the Ministry of Finance. In response, the Costa Rican government declared a state of emergency and shut down a lot of its critical information systems at a cost of more than $30 million a day. If that wasn’t enough—and proof that hackers are the ultimate opportunists—a second attack was made by a group called Hive. This attack was aimed at the Costa Rican Social Security program. This forced the country to shut off all information systems connected to their Social Security healthcare system and health insurance processing.

These examples show how dangerous cyberattacks can be. Every government in the world is scurrying around trying to find cybersecurity systems that work to mitigate the risk of publicly-held private information being stolen and systems from being breached. This isn’t even mentioning how many critical systems could have vulnerabilities and be targeted by any hacking group, state sponsored or not. The chances that hackers could get in and control critical infrastructure and services is a reality and is scary. 

Fortunately, there are enough people taking these risks seriously, but success often depends on private companies that have a vested interest in the protection of the systems that run the day-to-day processes that are critical to people and society. With technology handling systems that—if they go down—could cause catastrophe for large numbers of people, it’s important that they are vigilant in their aim to secure their infrastructure and networks.

With so much dependence on technology in today’s society; and, so much conflict in the world, it’s inevitable that hackers, whether it be as a part of an independent hacking group, or state-sponsored, will aim to do things that benefit their cause. 

At Suffolk Computer Consultants, we can help your cause. We can provide you with the security tools and expert knowledge that allow you to build a security apparatus that can protect you from dealing with the massive pitfalls found in today’s arduous threat landscape. To have a conversation about cybersecurity with one of our IT professionals, give us a call today at 631-905-9617.