Does Australia face a serious danger from Internet-based terrorism? How do we mitigate the risks involved, and how is the Internet contributing to a propaganda war on all sides of the debate?

Greetings in the name of Allah.

We are Al-shiite Youth movement of Nigeria, founded on the 5th of September 1993, and since then our organisation is made up of over 55,033 members in north -south, eastern and western, zones of Nigeria. Over the years we have tried to increase our followers, but due to lack of funds, we are fighting a lost battle."

--Excerpt from e-mail authored by Danjuma Mohammad, Admin Secretary, of the Al-shiite Youth movement of Nigeria.

What is peculiar about the e-mail circulated by the Al-Shiite Youth movement of Nigeria, was the solemn promise that all donations would contribute to its ultimate goal of overcoming the influence of Christianity in Nigeria, and the implementation of Sharia Law throughout the country.

Welcome to the apparently innocuous face of e-terrorism.

"As soon as someone uses the term e-terrorism they begin to lose credibility with me," says Graham Ingram, general manager for Internet security watch-dog AusCERT. "The whole idea of terrorism is to do something that creates terror. You need the physical realisation of violence, and there is very little terror inspired by bits and bytes."

Nonetheless, Ingram points out that the Internet can be used in a variety of ways to support terrorist acts, outlining scenarios whereby a physical attack is timed to coincide with an attack on essential communications services.

"You might have a terrorist act which involves violence and death, and somehow interrupt the 000 emergency number so that the authorities couldn't respond as effectively," Ingram says.

However, not everyone agrees with Ingram's definition.

Kim Valois, security service director at IT integrator CSC says that while e-terrorism includes in the first instance any attack on critical information systems infrastructure, it can also include the use of an information system to benefit or support a terrorist organisation.

"Any disruption to information systems that are in public use, like banking or transport, any use of such systems to disrupt, undermine or cause damage in some way - attacks against the power supply or the banking system - these are all part of e-terrorism." Valois says. "However, some groups are more likely to use the Internet for information dissemination or fundraising activities."

When it comes to Internet-based acts of terrorism for example, there is little difference between a politically motivated terrorist attack and a malicious corporate or nuisance hack attack.

The only difference, according to Dean Kingsley, partner in enterprise risk services for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, is the potential for e-terrorists to be more highly motivated, and perhaps better funded than their counterparts.

"There is the potential for e-terrorism to have a significant impact, but the likelihood is very small because the counter measures businesses and government need to take against the terrorists are the same as those they should already have in place to mitigate the risks organisations face every day," Kingsley says.

In a similar vein, senior advisor on national information infrastructure, Mike Rothery, argues that while the potential exists for e-terrorism to create a substantial disruption to Australia's essential services, the likelihood is minimal.

"We would argue that there is no recoded occurrence of cyber terrorism. That is not to say that it can't happen given the right combination of capability and intent, but those groups capable of launching an Internet-based attack which might threaten life have not got together to do so," Rothery says.

Like Ingram, Rothery argues that few if any Internet-based attacks fall into the realms of terrorism.

"We live in an environment where the threat of a politically motivated attack is very real, but Web site defacement for political aims falls way short of terrorism," Rothery says.

Nonetheless, as Valois points out, there can be no doubt that the Internet has been used as a means to generate support for different terrorist organisations, creating a dangerous dilemma for governments who find themselves under threat.

For starters, the Hizbollah which supports suicide bombers, and the School of the Americas, which has spent decades training and recruiting right-wing terrorists in the US, have Web sites which openly refer to their activities and motivations.

Others such as the Christian Falangist Party of America make loud claims that they do not condone religious violence, whilst displaying links to the Phalange Christian groups in Lebanon responsible for countless acts of violence and terror.

Oddly enough, many sites created to encourage violence like the profoundly anti-Semitic Holy War claim to be attempting to combat terrorism, while describing Israel as a Communist-Jewish-satanic state.

There is even a Web site claiming to represent the Taliban, which warns Israelis to leave Israel or face total destruction.

Browsing down the threat

Thanks to the wonders of modern communications, there is a place you can go for a refresher course on the finer points of the Mujahideen's jihad. Entitled "What can I do to help Jihad and the Mujahideen" the page provides a series of quotes from the Koran, and Hadith - or reported utterances from Mohammed - which justify armed struggle aimed at the implementation of Sharia law throughout the world. A series of links also refer to country specific sites in those countries where the Mujahideen has a presence.

More general information regarding the armed Jihad can be obtained at a site called Jihaadulkuffaarin.jeeran.com which makes its intentions clear with the opening quote: "Jihaad and the rifle alone: no negotiations, no conferences, and no dialogues".

In a similar vein Kahane provides extensive arguments for the forcible expulsion of Palestinians from what's left of their land, and provides ample justification for violence against Islam. This group also has close ties with the Kahane Chai which has claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks against Palestinian targets in the West Bank, and Jerusalem. It has also been linked to the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Claiming to be saving America and Israel from Islamic terrorism, and anti-Semitic black rappers the Jewish Task Force promises to channel any donations to the defence of human rights for right-wing dissidents in Israel.

But you don't need to go to the middle east to find Web sites calling for violence and extremism. The Australian Nationalist Movement provides a bit of home grown vitriol, claiming that democracy and freedom can never coincide, and hero-worshipping the "extremist" - as one who will "march through hell for a heavenly cause".

However, it is hard to measure to the extent of the effect such Web sites have. Given also that there has been a sharp increase in attacks against Mosques and Muslims in Australia since September 11, it would appear that a range of sources of propaganda have been successful in inciting violence and misdirected retribution.

Meanwhile Web sites such as that of Fred Nile's Christian Democratic Party which makes totally unfounded claims linking refugees with terrorism and the New Australian serve as fuel in a climate already fraught by racial tension.

In a recent interview with ZDNet Australia, the minister for Information Technology and Communication pointed out that the government was unable to react to politically driven Web sites, unless they represented groups which had been specifically designated as a criminal organisation.

"Well the current regime caters for the possibility of these things being regarded as highly offensive, I mean if they're criminal then they qualify automatically - it's really then a complaints-driven regime," explained senator Alston. "If someone wants to say that a particular Web site is offensive or illegal, they bring it to the attention of the ABA and things start to happen. I think we'd be reluctant to go down the path of trying to introduce some specific regime for racial intolerance, simply because things vary so much depending on the individual content."

Similarly Irene Graham, executive director of Electronic Frontiers Australia questions the need for any changes to the current legal approach.

"We don't see why there needs to be special laws relevant to the use of the Internet as a medium, terrorists also use the roads and the post and fax machines," Graham says. "As far as a real terrorist organisation is concerned, it is the same problem as any other Web site, there is very little an individual government can do to stop a site being published on the Web, they need to go to where the people are and prosecute them for their activities, not for the publication itself."

While there can be no doubt that the Internet has become an important source of information for all manner of groups which advocate violence, it is also being used to disseminate information by groups calling for a peaceful resolution to global conflict, and an end to racial and religious intolerance. And thankfully the sites calling for peace and tolerance remain in the majority.

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