Detection, identification, judicial and technical responses: Ambassador Jean-Paul Laborde argues that we must coordinate our reaction to cyberterrorism and we must do it quickly.
The digital revolution has increased the options available to terrorists by empowering them to cause a power outage in big cities, block the gas supply or take enterprises hostage through ransomwares. “Terrorists are also exploiting social networks and the Dark Web to raise funds and recruit followers. Despite losing its territories, Daech, and even AlQaeda, keep recruiting,” says Ambassador Jean-Paul Laborde, Cyber-defense Chair and Director at the center of excellence for the fight against terrorism, CREC (Research Center of the Schools of Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan).
International collaboration is necessary
The first step in the fight against terrorism is prevention, although this can be insufficient. After having identified the attackers “we can’t let them get away with it”. To this end, the recommendation of Jean-Paul Laborde is clear. “We must succeed in setting put a global protocol for collaboration”. This mechanism is already employed at the European level and it would allow the police to demand providers to disclose the country of origin of the attack, from which it would be possible to track the cyber-attackers and act effectively.
