ISIS will switch the way of fighting to cyber war after the losses on the battlefield

ISIS and other terrorist groups are turning to the underworld to try to secure tools to carry out cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure.

Terrorist groups have taken part in low-grade “cyber vandalism” and their ability to wage more damaging attacks will only increase, according to a former operations chief at the UK’s spy centre GCHQ.

Many of the required tools to launch crippling attacks are becoming increasingly available on criminal markets on the so-called Dark Web, part of the world wide web that needs special software to penetrate.

Committed extremists could seek to accelerate those efforts by recruiting knowledgeable insiders, said Conrad Prince in a report for government-backed insurance company Pool Re. “A well-placed insider can go a long way to simplifying the work involved in delivering a destructive cyber-attack,” he wrote.

He cited the case of Rajib Karim, a former IT worker for British Airways, who used his position to investigate how to cause international travel chaos by bringing down the airline’s systems. He was jailed for 30 years in 2011 for plotting to blow up a plane.

Source: The National