Cyberterrorism and the Department of Homeland Security
Identification of the Patterns
As the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leader, I would engage in-depth research to understand evolving terrorism and the targeted violence threat environment to combat cyberterrorism. The country’s capacity to respond to emerging cyberterrorism crime depends on understanding the phenomena and adapting as they evolve effectively. Thus, my strategy of identifying the cyberterrorism patterns would begin with a detailed analysis of the present and emerging threats of terrorism. Indeed, the DHS should engage in intelligence integration and analysis of diverse operational and support components, the private division, and the state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments to enhance their preparedness for future cyberterrorism threats (Department of Homeland Security, 2019). To attain this goal, DHS will increase its investment in all directional data gathering and sharing infrastructure to enhance the identification, response, and prevention of mass attacks, cyberterrorism, and targeted violence. As a DHS leader, I will focus on conducting an in-depth analysis of the present threats to identify current and most probable future cyberterrorism patterns.
Additionally, DHS will adopt various strategies to enhance its identification of current and future terrorism activities. Besides enhancing data collection and analysis strategies, I will lead the DHS in assessing the technological advancements and risks from emerging technologies. Specifically, DHS will establish a sound understanding of the technologies that the terrorists will probably use to recruit militias and execute attacks. With the ongoing technological advancement, terror groups are likely to launch a new and unknown use of technologies to enforce their interests. Therefore, identifying cyberterrorism patterns will depend on risk-based evaluations of high-tech advancements in the present, intermediate, and long term. According to Harress (2014), the military should develop cyber warriors to defend information systems and the nation against cyberattacks. These assessments will examine the aptitude and jeopardy of evolving technologies like unmanned structures to enhance the department’s understanding of cyberterrorism patterns.
Use of Data to Combat Cyberterrorism Trends
Data collection will help in cyberattacks’ prevention and incident management in the coming days. Specifically, law enforcement officers should take advantage of numerous available data sources, analyze them, and turn them into actionable intelligence to facilitate investigations and cyberterrorism prevention. The DHS department will then analyze the collected data using artificial intelligent forensic software and use the emerging evidence to prevent and manage the probability of cyberattacks. Data is a vital concept to prevent cyberterrorism since accurate data can help understand the radicals’ intentions and plans, which motivates them to undertake different measures and strategies to prevent the occurrence of planned cyberattacks.
Moreover, data is a reliable strategy to understand the operation of cyber terrorists and improve cyber security in the future. Holden (2015) notes that cyberattacks target all companies and that enough understanding of the problem through data can help enhance an organization’s cybersecurity as a strategy to prevent cyberterrorism. Specifically, data analytics will, in the coming days, allow all organizations prone to attacks to understand the occurrence of data variance and determine measures to hinder data breaches, which in the end, facilitate cyberterrorism. As a leader at DHS, data collection will help counter any counterattack through enhanced cybersecurity and developing a robust military with an improved capacity to defend the nation against future cyberterrorism. The future of the military response to the rising global threat of cyberterrorism relies on the effective use of the gathered and analyzed data to improve the state of cybersecurity.
References
Department of Homeland Security (2019). Department of Homeland Security Strategic Framework for countering Terrorism and Targeted Violence. The US Department of Homeland Security
Harress, C. (2014). Obama says cyberterrorism is the country’s biggest threat, US Government Assembles ‘Cyber Warriors.’ International Business Times, 18.
Holden, D. (2015). Is cyber-terrorism the new normal? Wired. Web.