the news as I always do and yes before
you judge me my idea of a fun Saturday
night is binge watching CNN but anyways
I was sitting there watching the news
when suddenly headlines broke out over
the screen reading breaking news
72 dead after chemical attack in Syria
my heart sank
I kept on flipping back and forth from
the different news stations all covering
the same barbaric inhumane tragedy was
shook me to the core the Middle East and
the refugee crisis is one which I
connect on a deep level and spend a lot
of my time reading and learning more
about it’s an issue I care for very
profoundly learning more about the
conflicts arising in the Middle East
spurred an interest in terrorism
specifically its evolution it really
only feels like a few years ago I was
sitting on the same couch watching a
news broadcast of the Boston Marathon
bombing but this this was unlike
anything I had ever seen my mind became
occupied with thoughts about how
terrorism is metamorphosizing into a
stealthier beastly creature highly
unconventional and highly unexpected
so naturally after hearing of this
attack I looked more in depth in the
issue I learned about the sarin nerve
gas which caused innocent Syrian
children to froth at the mouth and
convulse on the ground as they
desperately gasp for air I went to bed
that night and kept on angrily thinking
to myself how could someone use such a
brutal way to hurt others reporters were
echoing my thoughts just like this is
like unlike anything we’ve ever seen and
chemical warfare is on the rise chemical
warfare what’s that fast forward a few
weeks I was on the bus flipping through
my news app when I read of a cyber
attack that it encrypted their victims
files on their computers and demanded a
ransom in the currency of Bitcoin this
attack was called the wanna cry
ransomware accounts and affected over
230,000 people in a
150 countries 230,000 that’s as if every
single student at CIS was hacked 77
times 77 then a short time after another
attack on an American nuclear power
plant which the hacker shut down and
another where a dam in New York State
was breached and so on and so forth
reporters were once again reading my
mind with headlines such as ransomware
attacks were on the rise and we’re in
danger
I thought about that statement we’re in
danger what if it had been me what if it
had been you who had your files
encrypted every single one of us is at
risk of being compromised isn’t that
crazy
you see we’re being reborn into this new
era driven by innovation in technology
where 10 years ago no one could have
even imagined facing terrorism and
widespread destruction through the
simple click of a mouse talk about cyber
terrorism became ever more concentrated
on the news and across the world
wait cyber terrorism what’s that you see
that’s the funny thing about terrorism
when we hear that word we use something
called word association we bring about
immediate ideas concepts images visuals
to that word so here’s a look at what
showed up when I type terrorism into the
Google Images bar when we hear terrorism
we think of large-scale bombs guns
planes crashing into buildings which is
exactly what we see here the ultimate
destruction of our society through guns
bombs and planes see the pattern
terrorism is a concept that we know of
but as quote not our problem or
something we aren’t at risk of think
again I kindly ask you to kick that
notion to the curb for the rest of this
talk and disregard your idea or a word
Association of terrorism and at the end
I like for you to think about if there’s
more to terrorism than what meets the
eye or if your word association or
interpretation of it has changed so what
does terrorism look like 10 years from
now
well a lot will change in 10 years
that’s undeniable
where things are going to become ever
more unconventional unorthodox and even
creative in a sense the gears have
already started to turn so let’s look at
this whole ransomware mumbo-jumbo
because the question still lies what is
cyber terrorism will revisit chemical
warfare in a while so ladies and
gentlemen I present to you without
further ado the future of terrorism
cyber terrorism now cyber terrorism or
cyber warfare has a large slew of
assailants lone wolves political or
ideological extremist groups
hacktivists companies and yes even
governments now of course whoever the
attacker each has their own motives but
with that comes various different types
of threats so today we’ll focus on three
espionage sabotage and propaganda cyber
spying or espionage is when an attacker
or attackers infiltrate a system to
obtain confidential information this is
often described as a tax on the victim
now espionage is extremely dangerous as
it can become as severe as the
compromised ation of national security
leaving an entire country at risk but of
course we’re a cyber spying heading
these attackers can tap into any form of
information they’d like but on a global
scale is where foreign governments can
become involved in order to benefit
their country from a security standpoint
if war were to break out governments may
hire or use hackers to spy on another
country’s intelligence communications to
gain tactical advantage at war or learn
about where troops are located I cannot
stress this enough this is huge
imagine for example Isis militant forces
were aware of every single game plan and
every single tactical move American
forces in Iraq and Syria had surely the
force the rebel forces and the American
forces could crumble and this would
effectively change the course of history
what would it Rock and Syria look like
now what might they look like if this
new level of terrorism is achieved now
sabotage or cyber sabotage is when an
attacker or attackers conduct actions
which compromised systems or machinery
for instance so what kind of machinery
think military equipment hydropower
power infrastructure transportation
basically every single things are our
lives revolve around and depend on on a
daily basis typically the goal of the
attacker is deformation destruction or
blackmail of the victims so what could
happen in the future let’s think back on
that Isis in American forces example I
gave in relation to espionage earlier
their terrorist forces would know of
warfare tactics but in sabotage
terrorists could gain access to military
control and actually control and disable
the signal which flies drones
helicopters planes any form of military
technology you could think of they could
get access to it imagine that if forces
or an entire country don’t have the
equipment to attack how do you win now
cyber propaganda is slightly different
than espionage or sabotage propaganda is
also seen as a form of psychological
warfare what does that mean basically
means that there are this form of
terrorism is actions which includes
actions to reduce the opponent’s morale
keep that in mind reducing the
opponent’s morale so this is essentially
the spark or the lighter the lighter
that lights the metaphorical match of
destruction or well the match of
terrorism so let’s think of well-known
terrorist organizations such as the
Taliban or Boko Haram or even the KKK as
a business yes a business or a
corporation a business needs employees
no and to gain employees a recruitment
process needs to be put into place or an
elucidation of the fact that the
al-qaeda or the Ku Klux Klan are hiring
how does an international terrorist
organization get the word out Isis for
example has an online magazine found in
the Deep Web Deep Web called dabiq yes
Isis literally has its own magazine
but terrorist organizations are also
very handy with hashtags yes
Isis literally has Twitter accounts and
tumblr accounts and Instagram accounts
and kik accounts you name it
Twitter is actually scrambling to shut
down Islamic state profiles which spew
propaganda and advertise the brutal acts
at the group commence but another grand
proper can’t propaganda scheme is online
videos or tutorials quite often
counter-terrorist experts refer to the
news as a refer to the Internet as
terrorist University where individuals
can learn how to fabricate bombs with
tools at home or watch foreign fighters
encouraging them to join the fight where
is this going well
social media is booming and it’ll
continue to grow and expand until it
reaches every corner of the globe this
is heaven for terrorist organizations
terrorism is heading in the direction of
lone wolf attacks which are already seen
today or a larger number of recruitments
in the host country of war after all
espionage and sabotage cannot happen
without someone to sit behind a computer
screen and carry out the actions what’s
a business without employees but what’s
a terrorist organization without
terrorists the thing about cyber
terrorism is that there’s much more ease
to it
why will you choose would you rather
attempt to fabricate bombs at home
purchase guns or risk your own identity
to be found or would you rather remain
anonymous in the comfort of your own
home I believe the answer is pretty
obvious but that being said what if your
targets aren’t found online or what if
the point you were trying to make is
different to the one seen in proper
cyber propaganda this is where chemical
warfare is substituted onto the game and
comes into play so ladies and gentlemen
I present to you the future of terrorism
part 2 chemical warfare now chemical
warfare is just reviving and countries
all around the world are increasingly
putting more pressure and more focus on
chemical weapons this form of warfare is
a use of chemical agents as a weapon of
war or terror from the mustard gas used
in World War 1 to the high
lethal neurotoxin sarin which is
potentially available for use today and
was used in Syria recently these
chemicals are actually considered a
weapon of mass destruction for many
terrorist organizations this is the
ideal mode of attack why well they’re
cheap they’re relatively accessible and
they’re pretty easy to transport an
experienced chemist can easily fabricate
or synthesize any form of chemical
agents available to them and convert
them into a deadly weapon so as I was
writing the script for this presentation
I stumbled upon a news article speaking
of the Barcelona lone wolf attack when
attacker drove a van into a downtown
market killing 13 pedestrians and
injuring dozens others I thought about
what if this had happened with chemical
weapons instead of a van I essentially
answered my own question about where the
future of chemical warfare can go lone
wolf attacks this is similar to what’s
been seeing nowadays in the media with
terrorists terrorizing their choice of
location with their respective weapon
but this is exactly what can happen with
chemical agents instead so scenario time
I know I’ve done a lot of these in the
talk please bear with me I barely have
any other tricks up my sleeve but
imagine a chemistry graduate student who
feels the need to advocate for a
movement they really support if they
were to get their hands on certain
chemical agents and utilize their
abilities to synthesize them they would
have a severe lethal weapon on their
hands which would definitely aid in
making their point movement or objective
clear to their chosen audience this is
some really scary stuff something
similar to this happened some time ago
in 1999 the Chechen terrorist
organization set off two chlorine gas
tanks in town in Russia thankfully no
one was affected due to favourable wind
conditions but of course it’s important
to consider the effects of chemical
weapons in order to understand the
magnitude of how awful these are well
the future attackers are essentially
kids in a candy store all with different
desired effects for the victims if they
were to choose their chemical agents so
to name a few blood agents this causes
rapid organ failure choking agents fluid
builds up in the law
leading to choking and eventually death
blister agents these chemicals burn a
person’s mucous membranes skin eyes as
well as college it’s causing large
severe blisters on any exposed skin
here’s the scary part when you inhale
these chemicals as a vapor the chemicals
have the ability to burn your windpipe
and lungs leading to death nerve agents
can cause paralysis seizures and loss of
body control this is by far the most
deadly and requires the least amount of
dosage to pop the most amount of effects
this was a chemical agent used in the a
firm engined chemical attack in Syria so
the attacker can essentially take their
pick and carry out the carry out the
attack but as time goes on this is
likely going to become more and more
prominent all around the world rather
than small bombs or shootings so what
does all of this mean truth is I don’t
have all of the answers I’m not really
sure how to fix this on ongoing issue
and this growing problem or what the
future of terrorism really does entitle
what I am here for is elucidation I
think in terms of cyber terrorism you
all know how important Internet security
is for example now but I sincerely do
hope that this TED talk is open up your
eyes and open up your mind about what
the future of terrorism looks like 10
years down the line and who knows maybe
now you guys have some really cool
dinner party anecdotes about the
potential destruction of our society the
cyber chemical warfare all sarcasm aside
I know that this is a lot to absorb but
I’d like for you to revisit that
question I asked earlier
is there more to terrorism than what
meets the eye
has your word association or
interpretation of it changed the point
is is that chemical warfare or cyber
terrorism is our problem and if you
don’t feel like it is it certainly can
become our problem so I bid you farewell
with a code set by sinzu who wrote the
art of war he said water shapes its
course according to the nature of the
ground over which it flows therefore
just as water retains no constant shape
so in warfare
there are no constant conditions thank you for your time