Author(s): Florentina-Ștefania NEAGU, Anca SAVU, Tiberiu TĂNASE
Publication name: Romanian Intelligence Studies Review
Publisher name: Mihai Viteazul National Intelligence Academy
Publication type: Journal article
Publication date: June 30, 2019
Pagination:
Issue/ Volume: 21/2019
DOI:
Abstract
The phenomenon of cyber terrorism has grown globally and the states of Middle
East and North Africa have not been circumvented, a major cause of the spread of the
phenomenon is Internet users’ access, so that in North Africa in 2000 the number of
Internet users was 710,000 and in 2017 there were 102 million users; this means 45% of
the total population of the region. Another factor is legislative shortcomings or even
their absence, for many years Tunisia did not have a law on cybercrime instead of using
the law on e-commerce. The same thing is happening in Morocco that uses the trade law.
Algeria and Egypt have no cybercrime laws, but publicly announced that then
declare the cyberspace domain of national priority. The only states where there is no law
on cybercrime, communications regulation or other laws on new technologies are Libya,
Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Kuwait. Attackers’ motivations are money-related, infecting
devices by sending malware via e-mail, commercial and industrial espionage. The tools
they are using include: web app attacks, ransomware, targeted attack, defacement,
espionage, insider threat, theft and physical damage, DDos, phishing and malware.
Taking into account the political and economic evolutions in the region as well as
globally, there is an upward trend in cyber terrorism.
Keywords: cyber terrorism, dark web, information warfare, intelligence, risks
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