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Information Technology for Counterterrorism Immediate Actions and Future Possibilities (2003) / Chapter Skim
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1 Background and Introduction
Pages 10-14

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From page 10...
... In the space of a few hours, thousands of American lives were lost, and property damage in the tens of billions of dollars occurred an obviously high-impact event. However, as illustrated by the subsequent anthrax attacks, widespread disruption of key societal functions, loss of public confidence in the ability of governmental institutions to keep society safe, widespread loss of peace of mind, and/or pervasive injury to a society's way of life also count as manifestations of "high impact." It is on such high-impact, catastrophic dimensions of terrorism that the Committee on the Role of Information Technology in Responding to Terrorism decided to concentrate in order to keep the analytical focus of this report manageable.
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From page 11...
... Thus, in an information technology context, the "lone hacker" threat often described in terms of maladjusted teenage males with too much time on their hands is not the appropriate model. Protection against "ankle biters" and "script kiddies" who have the technical skills and understanding as well as the time needed to discover and exploit vulnerabilities is of course worth some effort, but it is important as well to consider seriously the larger threat that potentially more destructive adversaries pose.
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From page 12...
... 1.3 THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE AND ASSOCIATED RISKS The IT infrastructure can be conceptualized as having four major elements: the Internet, the conventional telecommunications infrastructure, embedded/real-time computing (e.g., avionics systems for aircraft control, supervisory control and data acquisition [SCADA] systems con2Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Research Council, 1996, Computing and Communications in the Extreme: Research for Crisis Management and Other Applications, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.; Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Research Council, 1999, Information Technology Researchfor Crisis Management, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.
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From page 13...
... First, an attack can come in "through the wires" as a hostile program (e.g., a virus or a Trojan horse program) or as a denial3computer science and Telecommunications Board, National Research Council.
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From page 14...
... 5computer science and Telecommunications Board, National Research Council.
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Key Terms

  • national life
  • critical infrastructure
  • crisis management
  • normally expect
  • attack disrupted

  • uncover terrorists
  • emergency response
  • technology research
  • adversaries pose
  • own culture

  • provide accurate
  • backbone connections
  • information awareness
  • consider seriously
  • society safe

  • subsequent anthrax
  • terrorist attack
  • technical skills
  • intentions gains
  • widespread loss

  • key societal
  • pending attack
  • governmental institutions
  • car bomb
  • support data

  • network continues
  • involves promoting
  • perform research
  • destructive adversaries
  • trusted insider


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