NEED FOR DEFINITION FOR CYBER TERRORISM

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 (Bernama) -- The international community needs to come up with a consensus on the definition of cyber terrorism, and the appropriate laws for it.

CyberSecurity chief executive officer Lt Col (R) Husin Jasri said currently,
any form of attack on an individual, organisation or service in cyberspace was
still categorised as 'cyber crime', even though it might bring on a threat of
a national level or incur economic losses.

Giving an example of a person sending out an instruction to an
organisation for the destruction of a building or premises via the internet, he
said it was difficult to point out on which level the act was no longer a cyber
crime but considered cyber terrorism.

"These crimes are punishable by online communications acts available in
the country, but none of it constitutes cyber-terrorism, because no one can even
define what that is," he told Bernama after presenting his paper, 'ICT, Youth
and Terrorism' at the International Conference of Youth on Terrorism here
Thursday.

He said the closest example of what cyber terrorism might be was the cyber
attack on the Estonian Government and media websites that crippled internet
communication in the country for a spell.

In the May 2007 incident known also as the Estonian Cyberwar, the online
attack came from 128 sources outside the country, targetting websites of
ministries, the parliament, banking, media and police websites.

Economic losses were incurred as a result of online-based transactions being
disrupted.

Despite that, Husin said, the international community was still skeptical on
whether what happened constituted cyber-terrorism.

"Cyber-terrorism is a concept that is still difficult to articulate, and
opinions differ from one country to another.

"Some countries are even questioning whether the concept exists. To them, if
it takes place in cyber space, it's just a cyber crime," he said.

-- BERNAMA