Information Warfare: An Analysis of the Threat of Cyberterrorism Towards the US Critical Infrastruct

In today's electronic age, we rely on computers and the information they carry in almost every aspect of our lives. Whether it is banking, e-commerce businesses, health care, law enforcement, air transportation, college students, or your home Internet surfer, we are all becoming increasingly reliant upon the ones and zeros flying across the vast seas of interconnected wires, routers, switches, RF and cellular communication towers, and computer networks. It is these connected networks that now make up our national 'cyber' infrastructure. Yet it is this infrastructure that if not protected may be prone to information warfare attacks by cyberterrorists. The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibility of a terrorist group launching an information warfare attack against our infrastructure and to answer the question: Is the US ready to defend against a cyber attack?