PHow can we deter cyber terrorism?

Citation

Khey, D.N. (2013), "PHow can we deter cyber terrorism?", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 36 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm.2013.18136baa.004

PHow can we deter cyber terrorism?

How can we deter cyber terrorism?

Article Type: Perspectives on policing From: Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, Volume 36, Issue 2.

Jian Hua and Sanjay BapnaInformation Security Journal: A Global Perspective2012Vol. 21pp. 102-114

This research collates findings from both academics and practitioners on how to optimize deterrence strategies to reduce the levels of cyber criminality. In their review of the literature, the authors establish that most law enforcement and governments are hampered to deter cyber criminality and terrorism due to their inability to identify and detect these crimes. Hua and Bapna review deterrence theory and find that the rational choice component of deterrence typically tips in favor of criminal cyber activity directly due to the fact that a lion share of cyber offending will not be detected or will not be isolated to the offending party/parties. Citing previous research on copyright violations, the authors do find that increased detection and prosecution of things such as digital downloads of copyrighted music had a general deterrence effect. Yet, without deep pockets to help fund detection efforts, litigation risk for Internet Service Providers who do not report this kind of activity, et cetera, other kinds of cyber criminality continues to run rampant without much threat of detection or prosecution.

As a solution, the authors develop a framework that incorporates some of the success from the copyright infringement campaigns by engaging both academics and practitioners on best practices. These practices include enhancing cooperation across jurisdictions (in particular, international jurisdictions), fund research on adoption of authentication technologies, enhance cooperation between law enforcement and Internet Service Providers, educate laypersons on how to protect themselves from cyber criminality, and create a legal infrastructure that has the ability to prosecute hackers and white collar cyber crimes with celerity and severity. According to the authors, this multifaceted approach has the potential to optimize the deterrence capacity of our legal system by combining technical, policy, and legal components (instead of outdated legal constructs alone).

In their concluding remarks, Hua and Bapna state that they do not have the capability to estimate how investment in each area above will differentially impact cyber criminality deterrence. That is, there may be some strategies that have more impact with less monetary investment and barriers. Cost-strapped public sector entities direly need this information before they blindly invest in such strategies. Future research desperately needs to be done to achieve these ends. The vast majority of inquiry into deterrence of digital crimes suggests that this type of offending is more difficult than conventional criminality regarding the development of prevention strategies. It is time to start chipping away at this difficult problem and set up infrastructure that has the capacity to process these crimes effectively and efficiently.

David N. KheyLoyola University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA