In light of the recent wave of terror attacks in the UK, Turkey, and Egypt, biometrics technology is increasingly being discussed as a means to tackle terrorism, not to mention fraud and theft.
The author argues that the western world's reliance on a "weak and dilapidated energy and communications network infrastructures" is a recipe for disaster.
FBI officials have stated that the agency has as yet found no evidence that the hijackers who attacked America used electronic encryption methods to communicate on the internet. But this has not prevented politicians and journalists repeating lurid rumours that the coded orders for the attack were secretly hidden inside pornographic web images, or from making claiming that the hijacks could have been prevented if only western governments had been given the power to prevent internet users from using secret codes.
John Horvath argues against calls to search the internet for terrorist use of steganography because by invoking the evils of terrorism, the government is able to justify "the loss of privacy and a state of surveillance [society] would otherwise not accept."
John Horvath argues that the government's fear of cyberterrorism and hacktivism from China is creating a new cold war mentality.
Paul Treanor examines the implications of 'private war' or when non-state actors attempt to change the policies of foreign governments through the use of advanced technologies.