Cyberterrorism: the Borderless Danger

Abstract

Cyberspace has its share of attacks by Turkish hacker groups. Because of the extensive fear of immediate cyber terror, Turkish hacker movements are also feared and called terrorists by western media. Attacks by Turkish hackers on sites criticizing Islam and Turkey have been common since 9/11. Recent Mavi Marmara incident resulted in cyber attacks on Israeli websites by Turkish hackers. Israeli media covered this event as Muslim cyber-terror. This chapter outlines that cyber hactivism after Mavi Marmara is yet another case of Turkish nationalistic benevolent act rather than a Muslim terror attack. The damage they do is not financial but for their universal message of brotherhood. Hence a new definition of cyber terror, that of ideological hacking is needed to identify the concerns of these attacks. This study discusses the new face of terrorism in the 21st century while giving examples about what counts as ‘cyber terrorism’ and what is not. It also aims to identify and classify the thematic concerns of the kind of attacks by the hackers and clarify these activities not as terrorist but essentially discursive activities. © Inter-Disciplinary Press 2011. All rights reserved.