Internet of Things, Ransomware and Terrorism
Hundreds of thousands of computers in more than 150 countries
across the world were affected and hundred thousand dollars were
paid by victims as ransom before a cyber-activist in the UK shut down
the spread. The threat however is not over as experts believe that
perpetrators and copy-cat hackers can develop mutants of the virus and
cause the mayhem again.
Is it then possible that terrorists would be interested to use similar
tactics? This may sound alarmist especially due to the limited and
reversibility nature of the impact of the WannaCry attack and terrorists’
conventional aversion to use the cyberspace to deliver attacks. However,
it is difficult to brush off the threat in a wider context if we consider the
motivations behind and dynamics of terrorist attacks and the potential
of attacks using cyber tools like WannaCry
Internet of Things, Ransomware and Terrorism
Arabinda Acharya and Amrit P Acharya
Department of International Security Studies, National Defense University, Fort Lesley J. McNair, USA
Associate McKinsey & Company, USA