In assessing the magnitude of the credit card information theft and fraud problem, it is essential to understand who and what we are dealing with. Who is the enemy and what is the threat they pose? In the post 9/11 world, this is an increasingly vexing question. With that context in mind, the enemy can be characterized in two broad categories, terrorists and criminals. Terrorists are motivated by ideology from raising diminishes their ability to operate, and to attack us at home and abroad.
A challenge we confront in developing and maintaining viable detective and preventative capabilities is the fact that terrorist groups are learning organizations. They learn from their own history and experience. They also learn from the experience of other groups, both criminal and terrorist. Knowledge and learning are important. The Internet serves as a vital learning and facilitation tool. Terrorist groups assess their own vulnerabilities and adapt new methodologies to offset such vulnerabilities. In addition, they continuously adapt to exploit systemic weaknesses and develop opportunities to tap into new, as well as existing, funding sources. This adaptability factor is an important consideration when monitoring and assessing systemic risk.
From the funding perspective, the second step, planning is critically important. During the planning phase, terrorists determine how much money will be needed to carry out the attack. They also determine the sources of the funds and how the money will flow to the operatives responsible for carrying out the attack. For example, the 9/11 attacks were totally funded by Al-Qaeda. Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, approved funding and was responsible for forwarding funds, through facilitators in the United Arab Emirates and Germany, to the 19 hijackers.
Areas of vulnerability regarding terrorism should be assessed from two domains. First is the vulnerability to society. Terrorists are adept at identifying and exploiting systemic weaknesses. They are astute at understanding risk recognition. In addition, terrorists are extremely adaptable. In the U.S. we enjoy an open and free society. Our openness and freedom offer significant opportunities for terrorists. This is true both in terms of the threat of a terrorist attack and the threat terrorists pose to exploiting our financial vulnerabilities to include financial institutions and all businesses responsible for credit card information security. The second domain we should assess is the vulnerability to terrorists. The two most important vulnerabilities to terrorists are communications and finance. To better ensure our National Security, we must continue to develop proactive and innovative mechanisms to exploit terrorists’ vulnerabilities to communication and finance.
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