Combating the Domestic Terrorism Using Intelligence Collection and Analysis Techniques

COMBATING THE DOMESTIC TERRORISM

USING

INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION

AND

ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES

RESEARCH PAPER

Prepared by

Ty Stepter

December 2009

Introduction

Statement of the Problem

Domestic terrorism, the thought of Americans attacking Americans, is one of the most critical issues which face our nation and the Department of Homeland Security. Threats from within our borders directly affect the security infrastructure of the country.

One particular group to pay close attention to is the lone offender, or the ones who can act autonomously for far right wing causes they feel are important to them. These individuals execute their own agendas and may or may not be a member of a larger extreme group of terrorists.

Domestic Terrorists or Lone Offenders can sometimes hide behind our civil liberties, which can make it difficult for us to track or prosecute them. The civil liberties that we all enjoy as American citizens such as free speech, freedom to have your ideologies, freedom of religion, etc. should always be preserved for citizens. Illegal immigrants that seek asylum in this country should not be protected by civil liberties; however they remain a threat to our security.

The Patriot Act was signed into law by President George Bush on October 26, 2001. This law was designed to help our federal agents apprehend potential terrorists. It gives agents the right to search phone records, emails, financial records and other personal information without obtaining a court order. Although it may be viewed as an invasion of privacy, it's intend is to give us an advantage in fighting criminals that wish to do us harm.

Our borders are the first line of defense against keeping criminals out of our country. In addition to keeping people out, having a safe and secure boarder will also limit the amount of guns and drugs that are smuggled into our country. Domestic Terrorist have developed methods which transcend our physical borders, using the internet as means to recruit followers, disseminate information and plan attacks against our citizens.

Hypothesis

Recent events worldwide seem to indicate that terrorist efforts have changed focus in different regions of the world. This research paper will examine the issues that face our nation concerning domestic terrorism and analyze the policies and efforts addressing intelligence cooperation, national security and public safety. The hypothesis for my research paper will be that domestic terrorists have focused their resources on carrying out cyber attacks and decided not to pursue traditional methodologies. These cases suggest the terrorists organizations might be rethinking their strategy, because smaller more convert operations may be harder to detect and stop. To illustrate my point, I will analyze a number of domestic cases and provide research to illustrate how these organizations operate.

Social Engineering

Social Engineering occurs when individuals find critical pieces of information such as usernames and ID's and they attempt to use it to gain unauthorized access into your information system. Daniels defines it as the act of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. Attacker rarely comes face to face with their victims. Domestic terrorist have been known to use the internet to collect data on individuals in order to commit crimes.

Intelligence collection studies have shown that these have been some of the methods which terrorist use to steal from unsuspecting victims. Cobb states that phishing is the practice of fraudulently obtaining private information via the internet or other methods by masquerading as a legitimate business. The phisher steal things like usernames, bank account information, credit card numbers and ATM PIN's. The Sept. 11th hijackers also stole the identities of innocent individuals and fraudulently opened credit and bank accounts in their new names to conceal their terrorist activities (Daniels, 2001). Terrorists have been known to siphon bank accounts and use funds from fraudulent purposes, such as purchasing illegal arms or funding drug activities overseas (Cobb, 2003).

Intelligence has also revealed that phishing techniques have manifested themselves in the form of social engineering. Sometimes links are sent to unsuspected users trying to create forms of anxiety such that immediate attention is required by the user. Phishers have also used various techniques to disguise what they intend to do. (i.e. Using Images instead or text to avoid security filters). Sometimes phishers or in this case called "Vishers" ask users to dial fake phone numbers and enter their user code and pin numbers. This data is captured and used for criminal purposes.

Cobb also states that another form of fraud that can be used by domestic terrorists is the Evil Twin Concept. This event occurs when unaware users that join another computer network thinking that it is their own company's system. In reality, it is a fake one setup by a hacker who intends on stealing information. By the time the victim figures it out by logging in, the domestic terrorist has captured enough information from the exchange to become a legitimate user.

Threats and Vulnerabilities

Risk is defined by Broder as the probability that specific events may occur, such as the shooter attacked we witnessed by a lone gunman at Fort Hood in Texas last month which killed 13 people and wounded several others, and the consequences resulting from such an incident. threats and vulnerabilities combined together constitute the probability that terrorist events may occur.

Intelligence collection activities could involve assessing the availability of weapons and delivery systems. Broder warns that chemical, biological or radiological attacks used against our population may be our biggest threat. In some cases these weapons may be difficult to acquire, like nerve agents (tabun, soman, VX), vesicants (arsenic, lewisite, phosgene) and bio-toxins like (Ebola,