Page 7 - Cyber Terrorism and Extremism as Threat to Critical Infrastructure Protection

Editorial

Denis Čaleta

The complexity of the security environment confronts us constantly with important dilemmas
about the effectiveness of our risk management operations. The global security environment is
becoming more complex than ever before. In addition to traditional national and international
actors, who have had a major impact on the regulation of geo-political relationships in the inter-
national security environment until recently, non-state entities have been arriving on the scene.
They have gained special importance in terrorism, one of the most significant security threats at
the beginning of the 21st century, and present a threat to undisturbed functioning of the wider
social community. However, terrorism has not been the only serious security risk recently. We
have witnessed a whole range of complex security threats posed by constant migration pressure
to the external EU borders and, consequently, the adoption of more restrictive border measures
at the Schengen border, as well as cyber risks and large-scale hacker attacks, a wide range of
risks facing commercial organizations, coronavirus pandemic, and geopolitical shifts we ex-
perience almost daily and present us with the constantly changing dynamic of a stable security
environment we were accustomed to in the past. Because of all this, the professional public is
confronting dilemmas about seeking appropriate responses to the changed security trends.
However, an in-depth analysis of risk factors facing democratic societies in Europe quickly
reveals that threats are not only linked to external factors, but are, particularly major ones,
also found within democratic social communities themselves. Even a superficial analysis of
terrorist acts committed over the last 15 years in Europe shows that most acts were carried out
by citizens of European countries, who had, on the basis of their political, religious and other
views, radicalized to the extent that they were prepared to enforce their views by committing
terrorist acts. In addition to casualties, which were certainly a tragic product of these processes,
Western democratic societies were shaken by the realization that, sociologically speaking, they
were left without any suitable answers about to how it was possible for individuals in such
environments to become so radicalized as to be willing to risk their own lives and harm fel-
low citizens on account of their beliefs. The approach taken after 11 September 2001, when
excessive attention was focused on strengthening security mechanisms in the intelligence and
security field, indicated with every subsequent terrorist act that these measures were ineffec-
tive in and of themselves, and failed to produce desired results in relation to financial and other
resources used. Sociological processes taking place in democratic societies which are increas-

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