A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Cyber Terrorism

What would the ROI be for a terrorist organization wanting to take advantage of cyberterrorism, and how would they measure it?

Provocative perspective trying to emphasize on the minimal resources required to develop a cyberterrorism platform, with very interesting assessments of various financial issues and possible casualties. "A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Cyber Terrorism" tries to answer:

"Would cyberterrorism be a viable option for terrorists? This article addresses these questions assuming that a hypothetical terrorist group, interested in adding cyberterrorism to its arsenal, de-cides to engage in a cost-benefit analysis to assess the payoffs and investment re-quired by such a new endeavor. The conclusions are that cyberterrorism is not a very efficient substitute for more traditional tools like bombs. It is more effective for the terrorists to exploit information infrastructures to fight a “war of ideas,” spreading their beliefs and points of view."

While the publication is released two years ago, it has recently come to the global attention that Hezbollah aren't exactly the type of cave-hiding individuals, ones fully realizing the concept of outsourcing instead of re-inventing the wheel. While attacks on the critical infrastructure, namely frontal cyberterrorism attacks are still priority number one, and the possible scenarios already tested numerous times, this "cyberterrorism myopia" created many other dimensions of the concept.

What went beneath the radar and consequently evolved?
- online radicalization, propaganda, communication, recruitment, education, and fund-raising actually produce the "traditional terrorists"
- PSYOPS twisting the very foundations of the religion for the sake of a cause
- religious extremism started targeting more easily influenced/brainwashed youngsters while CCTVs were installed on the hot spots, and new IDs when homegrown terrorists make the news
- Hezbollah using U.S hosting companies since 1998
- OSINT backed PSYOPS improving the truthfulness of the statements

Keep on reading and data mining.