E-mail Bombs - Computer Terrorism

INTERNATIONAL terrorists can now inflict as much damage using computers and information today's technology as they could with bombs and edition explosives, according to security experts in Australia.

Russia Delegates at the Australian Institute of Criminology conference in Canberra heard that terrorists are increasingly able to use "information warfare" instead of traditional weapons to inflict damage on their targets.

They could, for example, hijack air traffic control systems to crash aircraft and cut power lines, or take hostage computerized services such as telecommunications and power supplies. Terrorists were also increasingly able to use the Internet as a tool of destruction, for example by carrying out "e-mail bombings" to throw computer equipment into chaos.

Russell Smith and Peter Grabosky, both security researchers, said computer systems everywhere could be vulnerable to disruption by terrorists, pranksters and extortionists, and gave a warning that authorities around the world had so far failed to realize the potential for computer terrorism. They said: "Techniques of 'information warfare' may be employed by terrorist organizations with no less effect than the traditional bomb. Some people regard their information systems with a degree of nonchalance. It's the contemporary equivalent of leaving your home with the door unlocked."

FROM RACHEL BRIDGE, SYDNEY Iraq crisis