Terrorism in the information age

Abstract

This article is the final result of the research project "Transformations of terrorism in the information age", developed in the context of the Observatory of Geopolitics and International Security of the School of International Relations of the Military Cadet School "General José María Córdova". This project emerged from the concern derived from the use of information and communication technologies by terrorist organizations, which have evolved to adapt to the information age from which their activities represent a greater threat to States and international security. In turn, the new technologies have also modified the functioning and structure of terrorist groups, which have adopted the more decentralized and flexible network model.

From this perspective, the reader will find in this article a synthesis of the information age as a historical process that has transformed all human activities, including war and terrorism, which leads to the analysis of cyberterrorism as a new threat to international security that operates in a decentralized, flexible and complex manner under the model of network warfare described by John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt. From there, the reader will learn about the different tactics and actions developed by cyberterrorists on the Internet, which go beyond the theft of national security information and the attack on critical infrastructure, to include ideological propaganda, recruitment and coordination of terrorist acts in the real world.