ABSTRACT
This chapter was in the process of its initial editing when the Massacre of September 11, 2001, took place.
While it would be wrong to rewrite this chapter in response to that one terrible event, it would be
shameful to fail to acknowledge the effects and the losses. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon were extreme but conventional terrorist attacks, but some of the retaliatory action that took
place in the following days and weeks occurred in cyberspace. The outcome of these actions must be
judged by the results. This chapter discusses the publicly known terrorist nation, drug cartel, and
hacktivist (cyber disobedience) capabilities, such as those of animal rights groups, freedom fighters,
and the like. Examples include terrorists such as Osama bin Laden using the Internet and encrypted
communications to thwart law enforcement, the drug cartels’ use of computers to support their drug
money laundering operations, and the Zapatista movement in Mexico, outnumbered and outfinanced by
the Mexican government, taking to the Internet to support its cause (the Zapatistas conducted denial of
service attacks against the Mexican and U.S. governments).
