Role of the National Cyberspace for American National Security

Essay by skypuffHigh School, 12th grade March 2009

download word file, 12 pages 5.0

Role of the National Cyberspace for American National SecurityTerrified, panic, chaos and terrorism. These are a few words that could be used to describe the terrorist attacks on the United States during the day of September 11, 2001. These attacks scarred American history and everyone who remembers it forever. But imagine if the terrorist who organized these attacks also had attacked the United States cyberspace. What if terrorist used cyberspace to gain control over and shut down all the airport control towers making commercial airplanes unable to land? The results of this would have been even more horrific than the original attack. As unlikely as this potential event seems, it is becoming more and more of a reality. It is a very scary thing to think about.

In order to understand how a potential attack like this is possible, one needs to understand the concept of cyberspace as well as its history up until the present day.

This will lead to understanding why the United States, along with many other countries, are attacked and how they can be attacked through cyberspace. This includes the tools used by cyber terrorist along with how they use these tools. Knowing these things will help explain some known examples of cyber attacks on countries governments, mainly the United States'. Also, believe it or not, there are ways to counter cyber attacks through advancements in technology and cyber defense. Reading through these topics that will be explained will give you a better understanding of cyberspace and cyber terrorism.

The word cyberspace can be defined as a term used in conjunction with virtual reality, designating the imaginary place where virtual objects exist. This is a very broad definition of cyberspace. A more in depth meaning of the word related more closely to cyberwar was described as...