Threat assessment paper

Posted by Winnie Melda on November 9th, 2018

Almost every day, we have countless headlines that stream across news describing terrorist plots and attacks on civilian across the western world and updates on atrocities committed by the Islamic State in Syria and the Levant (ISIL). The past years have born witness to an increase in lone offender attacks conducted by the homegrown violent extremists. The Islamic state tends to be one of the greatest domestic security concerns for the US (Applegate, 2016). Al Qaeda has shifted its strategy and is focusing on recruiting foreign homegrown terrorists.

The US social media tend to be a major threat to national security. The ISIL has transformed the homegrown violent extremists’ threat environment through the use of social media and the internet to encourage the terrorist attacks. Terrorists have managed to use social media where they are thrilled when a video on execution goes viral and grabs the attention of the world (Carafano, 2015). The extremists like luring individuals into small group conversations where they can attract new recruits and also radicalize others. Through social media, the terrorists can hold conversations in publicly accessed social networking sites (Applegate, 2016). As the technology advance, it tends to encourage the terrorist use of technology to communicate. The social media tend to be a threat to the national security as the extremist groups and terrorists use the social networks to conduct all kinds of activities from fundraising, recruiting, and propaganda to mission planning and intelligence gathering (Stalinsky & Carmon 2015). Almost the whole generation of Muslim youths is being and continues to be radicalized online by the violent images and the incitements to murder. With the social media, the recruitment numbers continue to increase because there is nothing being done to stop the flow of the jihad content hosted on the services.

So as to address the threat that is posed by social media on the US national security, the critical infrastructure owners and the operations must assess their vulnerabilities and also increase their investment in security (Carafano, 2015). As social media continue to be used by terrorists to provide Jihad content, it is necessary that the social media companies should participate in ensuring that terrorists are not able to pose content that may be a threat to the security of the country. The companies need to be questioned in a transparent way and should also commit to tackling the issue of eradicating the violent jihad content from the social media platforms (Ackerman, 2016). The internet tends to be a neutral platform, and the government can also use the internet in its counterterrorist operations. The counterterrorist operations may go online and conduct activities in the same systems. It is also possible to use the online presence of terrorist against them through gathering intelligence about the group and disrupt their online activities.

Law enforcements and the intelligence improvement can enhance the ability to prevent terrorist attacks. However, there is a need for a long-term solution that is aimed at preventing the self-radicalization (Bergen, 2016). The US need to target the ISIL’s communication nodes in the physical battlefield and also and the virtual communes of the cyberspace. As a measure of preventing homegrown extremism, there is a need for efforts to encourage integrations of the Muslim immigrants to American communities and welcoming and respecting both diverse cultures.

Reference

Ackerman, K. (2016). Homegrown violent extremists, top homeland threat list. Signal 70(10), 16-19

Applegate, T (2016). Reassessing the threat of homegrown violent extremism in the United States Small Wars Journal From file:///C:/Users/Guest/Downloads/Small%20Wars%20Journal%20-%20Reassessing%20the%20Threat%20of%20Homegrown%20Violent%20Extremism%20in%20the%20United%20States-%20Overstated%20or%20Underestimated-%20-%202016-10-01.pdf

Bergen, P. (2016). United States of Jihad. New York: Crown

Carafano, J (2015). Twitter kills: how online networks become a national-security threat.  e of US social media is a national security threat.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in custom nursing essay writing services services if you need a similar paper you can place your order for college essay writing services.