ABSTRACT
The United Nations Group of Governmental Experts reports have expressed growing concerns over the terrorist use of information and communication technologies. G. Weimann stated that despite no single act of cyberterrorism had taken place, its potential and alarming threat cannot be denied or ignored. According to L. Jarvis, S. Macdonald and L. Nouri’s survey-based analysis established ‘no meaningful consensus’ existed within global research community as to whether cyberterrorism posed ‘a security threat; the potential targets of cyberterrorist attacks; or, indeed, whether cyberterrorism has even yet occurred’. Examining if a deficit of international peace and security writ large may trigger cyberterrorism helps to understand the broader dynamics between cyberterrorism and international peace and security. In fact, before any observations, ‘cyberterrorism’ has come to exist in several configurations, turning out to be a cat that is simultaneously dead and alive. Whether cyberterrorism is a serious, real problem, nationally or internationally, primarily depends on the criteria applied to define terrorism.
