Exploring the Online Crime-Terror Nexus

The rise of terror actions by career criminals using their criminal skill sets to maim, kill and create terror; often arming themselves with everyday objects such as cars and lorries (the ‘crime-terror nexus’) not only demonstrates the adaptivity of criminal organisations and terror networks but also that they become less distinguishable from each other in a world that keeps evolving through socio-technological change. As the result of this, there is a growing concern within the security community of the growth of an online crime-terror nexus. This paper explores whether online facilities can be used to create terror. The first part explores the concept of crime-terror nexus and how it could work online, looks for any evidence of it operating online. The second part explores the make-up and operation of a booter-service which could be hired out to launch DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks and, effectively, weaponise data in attacks against individuals, organisations and infrastructure. The third part draws conclusions