Cyber-Terrorism: Are We Legally Prepared for the Day After?

Abstract

It is submitted that it is most probably just a matter of time before a cyber-terrorism attack will occur and cause enormous harm and damage. The paper continues to analyse the lack of a clear counter-cyber-terrorism mechanism at the international level by examining different existing sectoral United Nations Conventions on terrorism and their applicability to cyber-terrorism. Finally, it discusses whether there is a legal instrument outside the conventional approaches to counter cyber-terrorism. The paper concludes that the Cybercrime Convention of the Council of Europe is a good starting-point but further support is needed to overcome implementation and ratification issues. To ensure further progress, the additional establishment of an inter-governmental task force on cyber-terrorism is favoured.