{"id":741,"date":"2016-02-12T15:20:01","date_gmt":"2016-02-12T20:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/?p=741"},"modified":"2016-02-12T15:20:01","modified_gmt":"2016-02-12T20:20:01","slug":"terror-age-cyberspace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/02\/terror-age-cyberspace.html","title":{"rendered":"Terror in the Age of Cyberspace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Terrorism has always existed in our world. Abraham\u2019s encounter in ancient Mesopotamia (Genesis 14) is one of the earliest recorded examples of local terrorists (tribal chiefs) kidnapping and plundering innocents. The Assyrian invasions of ancient Near East kingdoms were particularly brutal. Certain tactics used to win the American Civil War were horrific, and individuals involved in winning that war often took matters into their own hands, thus terrorizing the local countryside.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, in our day, radicals have flown planes into buildings and launched individual attacks using guns, cars, and bombs.<\/p>\n<p>But no one has ever seen the destruction possible in the new frontier of cyberspace. Certainly, Western nations are intimately aware of these threats, which range from computer hacking by foreign governments, to an even scarier possibility: an EMP attack.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_747\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-747\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/02\/3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-747\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/237\/2016\/02\/3-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the 2016 CyberTech Conference in Tel Aviv.\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-747\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the 2016 CyberTech Conference in Tel Aviv.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Israel and her ally, the United States, stand at the forefront of efforts to combat cyber-terrorism. The recently concluded CyberTech Conference, held in sunny Tel Aviv, was a unique opportunity for cyber journalists to interact with the folks who are working to keep all of us safer.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/aifl.org\/\">The America-Israel Friendship League<\/a>, coordinating a delegation of such writers with the Israeli Foreign Ministry, is committed to strengthening friendships for Israel the world over. Executive Director Daniella Rilov couldn\u2019t have been happier with the outcome of the conference:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCyber security highlights an area in which Israel excels and her cyber security experts introduced a dialogue in a language that is easily spoken amongst colleagues. I was honored to join these distinguished American Cyber journalists and to witness their profoundly positive response as they visited Israel for the first time. Seeing Israel through their eyes reminded me of the truly unique value of this amazing country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Several of the writers on the AIFL delegation were impressed with what they saw; and each has spent a good deal of time in the field of cyber-security. Richard Steinnon easily saw the potential of what Israel is doing in pioneering high-tech:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe meetings painted a picture relative to other countries in the world: a tight-knit community pulling in the same direction, even with different motivations. In Israel, we saw the government and venture capitalists all pushing an agenda of creating a cyber powerhouse in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anthony Freed, director of corporate communications for Evident.io, was particularly interested in a chance to visit with a person who has contributed greatly to public safety, General Danny Gold, who developed the Iron Dome Project.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe had an action-packed week. We had an opportunity to have dinner with Danny Gold. The Iron Dome has proven to be 90 percent effective, and it was very impressive to see technology behind it.\u201d Freed also understands the threats faced with regard to electric grids.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_748\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-748\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/02\/2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-748\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/237\/2016\/02\/2-300x214.jpg\" alt=\"The AIFL delegation enjoyed opportunities for close networking with Israeli cyber-security experts.\" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-748\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The AIFL delegation enjoyed opportunities for close networking with Israeli cyber-security experts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWe went to Haifa, and had a briefing with some of Israeli electric company officials. Their grid is an isolated grid, unlike other countries. They have a lot of fail-safes there. It\u2019s much more challenging than what we face with ours, and they do a very good job of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As we all go about our daily lives, it\u2019s comforting to know that smart people with good intentions are working round-the-clock to keep ahead of the bad guys.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a great comfort in our Brave, New World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Terrorism has always existed in our world. Abraham\u2019s encounter in ancient Mesopotamia (Genesis 14) is one of the earliest recorded examples of local terrorists (tribal chiefs) kidnapping and plundering innocents. The Assyrian invasions of ancient Near East kingdoms were particularly brutal. Certain tactics used to win the American Civil War were horrific, and individuals involved&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":392,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Terror in the Age of Cyberspace - Is it the End of the World?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Terror in the Age of Cyberspace - Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Terrorism has always existed in our world. Abraham\u2019s encounter in ancient Mesopotamia (Genesis 14) is one of the earliest recorded examples of local terrorists (tribal chiefs) kidnapping and plundering innocents. The Assyrian invasions of ancient Near East kingdoms were particularly brutal. Certain tactics used to win the American Civil War were horrific, and individuals involved&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/02\/terror-age-cyberspace.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-12T20:20:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/02\/3-300x169.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Fletcher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Terror in the Age of Cyberspace - Is it the End of the World?","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Terror in the Age of Cyberspace - Is it the End of the World?","og_description":"Terrorism has always existed in our world. Abraham\u2019s encounter in ancient Mesopotamia (Genesis 14) is one of the earliest recorded examples of local terrorists (tribal chiefs) kidnapping and plundering innocents. The Assyrian invasions of ancient Near East kingdoms were particularly brutal. Certain tactics used to win the American Civil War were horrific, and individuals involved&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/02\/terror-age-cyberspace.html","og_site_name":"Is it the End of the World?","article_published_time":"2016-02-12T20:20:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/02\/3-300x169.jpg"}],"author":"Jim Fletcher","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/02\/terror-age-cyberspace.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/02\/terror-age-cyberspace.html","name":"Terror in the Age of Cyberspace - Is it the End of the World?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/02\/terror-age-cyberspace.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/02\/terror-age-cyberspace.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/02\/3-300x169.jpg","datePublished":"2016-02-12T20:20:01+00:00","dateModified":"2016-02-12T20:20:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/e4febb70ba13f920c6255f1d7aaf0c96"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/02\/terror-age-cyberspace.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/02\/terror-age-cyberspace.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/02\/terror-age-cyberspace.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/02\/3-300x169.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2016\/02\/3-300x169.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2016\/02\/terror-age-cyberspace.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Terror in the Age of Cyberspace"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/","name":"Is it the End of the World?","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jim Fletcher","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/e4febb70ba13f920c6255f1d7aaf0c96","name":"Jim Fletcher","description":"Blogger and researcher Jim Fletcher has worked in the book publishing industry for 15 years, and is now director of the apologetics group Prophecy Matters. 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