Information technology has been used to engage, support, and facilitate terrorist-correlated offenses. Terrorists can use the internet to spread misleading information and perform cyber-attacks. Cyberterrorism has always been used to describe the use of the internet to fulfill terrorist purposes. However, there has been no agreement on the definition of cyber terrorism, which has posed a challenge in tackling cyber terrorism attacks (Yunos & Sulaman, 2017) . There is no universal clarity concerning cyber-terrorism due to the wide range of conceptions of cyberterrorism, ranging from the most extensive notions such as online terrorist attack to the slight understanding of the term. The slight understanding of the principle is described as pure cyber-terrorism and is regarded as a cyber-dependent crime executed for political purposes to induce fear, intimidate people and government and threaten to cause harm.
Establishing a universal understanding has been quite challenging since different countries have their definitions of cyberterrorism. The term has been dependent on the country labeling the act. However, different countries' labeling actions resulted in adverse effects, such as unreasonable prosecution of people prosecuted with cyber-crimes. The media has also hyped the terrorism threats by developing alarming comparisons with past adversities and strikingly describing prospect attacks to key infrastructures (Taliharm, 2012) . The intensive media attention has influenced the way internet users and organizations perceive cyberterrorism threats. Lack of a good understanding of the term has given the online terrorist an internet platform that is fast, cheap for sharing information.
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Different organizations have varied definitions of cyber-terrorism. FBI defines it as a preceding planned, politically inspired attacks against data and information, computer programs, and systems by the subnational groups or the secret agents, resulting in exploitation of the targets. The United States Commission for critical infrastructures defines the term as terrorists’ attacks developed to cause physical violence or serious financial damages. FBI defines the term with the threats-related information stored on computers and the internet (Homeland Security, 2020) . In contrast, the US commission relates the term to physical and financial exploitations. The definitions imply that cyberterrorism is an attack that targets information and data stored physically, in computers and computers. Also, the definitions imply that attackers are innovative and professionals who seek unconventional and eccentric techniques to accomplish their objectives.
References
Homeland Security. (2020). Critical Infrastructure Security . https://www.dhs.gov/topic/critical-infrastructure-security
Taliharm, A. (2012). Emerging Security Challenges and Cyber Terrorism . Digital Developmental Debates . http://www.digital-development-debates.org/issue-05-securing-peace--future-wars--emerging-security-challenges-and-cyber-terrorism.html
Yunos, Z., & Sulaman, S. (2017). Understanding Cyber Terrorism from Motivational Perspectives. Journal of Information Warfare, 16 (4), 1-13.
