All in all, electronic crimes are costing an estimated 10 billion dollars per year. (Cybercrime) It is easy to see that cyber crimes are no small thing that can go unnoticed anymore. It affects us all in our safety and security, not to mention in our tax dollars. So, the real question now that we are aware of the fact that cyber terrorism is going on every day all around us is how can we stop it? There are several things that we as individuals and as a nation can do to stop, or at least slow down, cyberterrorism.

First off, at the individual level, we all need to become aware of what cyber terrorism is, and how it can be used to harm us. We need to know all the possible ways that cyber terrorists can get into our lives. We need to know that we need to be especially careful of who gets hold of our credit cards, our social security numbers, and all of the other important documents that we have in our lives. Also, we need to have the correct preventative tools when using our computers on the Internet where we are susceptible to these terrible acts. “Individual computer owners can become unwitting accomplices to denial of service attacks. Information technology experts say that maintaining good security—using a firewall and virus protection software, avoiding suspicious email and programs—can help prevent or minimize cyberattacks.” (Cyberterrorism)

Although the individual can do certain things to protect their own computers and personal information, what can be done about our national security? One group that helps prevent attacks on information systems is the CERTs (computer emergency response teams). (Rattray 381) The CERTs are available all day, every day for any security issues that occur in cyberspace. They also inform users if their system is vulnerable to attacks, and work to create some sort of patch to fix that vulnerability problem. Although the CERTs work on a national level, there are CERT-like groups that exist in our society who operate on a more personal level.

Groups out there such as the CERTs help in avoiding terrorist attacks greatly. They do this in different ways. The best way is to find holes in a computer system’s security, holes which a terrorist could enter that system and cause a big ruckus, and patch those holes using new firewalls and protection software. (Cyberterrorism) Backing up a systems files is another very good way to allow the owners of that system to feel safe and confident that they will be able to last through an attack and come back very quickly if a terrorist was to penetrate their system. Also, within a company, it is very important for the owners of that company to make sure that their employees can be trusted using their computer systems. It would be very easy for a terrorist group to go to an employee of a company and offer them money for security codes, passwords, or any other important information about that company’s computer system. After all, money speaks very loudly in the world today.

As you can see, cyber terrorism is a very big issue in all human beings lives, whether they know it or not. If you have ever purchased something on the Internet, you have been at risk of becoming yet another one of the many victims of a cyber crime committed by a cyber terrorist. There is no way to completely stop these heinous acts from happening, but there are a few ways to slow it down for a while. I hope that anyone who reads this paper will realize how real of a threat cyber terrorism is, and that you will research about it to find out ways that you can prevent it from happening. Make sure you are aware of cyber terrorism, cause it’s the people who have no clue of its existence that are gullible and fall for terrorist’s evil plans.