Hacking and distributed denial of service attacks
against computer systems are acts of terrorism, a government
terrorism watchdog said today.
In a
review of the definition of terrorism published today, but
dated March 2007, Lord Carlile said the Terrorism Act's inclusion
of attempts "to interfere with or seriously disrupt an electronic
system" remains justified.
Lord Carlile referred especially to computer systems that
control power stations, water utilities and banking systems,
collectively called the critical national infrastructure.
He said, "This has the potential to include internet service
providers, financial exchanges' computer systems, controls of
national power and water, etc.
"The huge damage to the economy of the nation, and the potential
for injury as a result, are self-evident. This category too should
be included in the definition. I have concluded that the provision
remains justified."
In December 2007 the head of MI5, Jonathan Evans,
wrote to 300 businesses that run critical national
infrastructure systems to warn of the threat posed in particular by
Chinese hackers.