Terrorism and national security

Cyberterrorism is the use of the Internet to conduct violent acts that result in, or threaten, loss of life or significant bodily harm, in order to achieve political gains through intimidation. It is also sometimes considered an act of Internet terrorism where terrorist activities, including acts of deliberate, large-scale disruption of computer networks, especially of personal computers attached to the Internet by means of tools such as computer viruses, computer worms, phishing, and other malicious software and hardware methods and programming scripts.

The National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) is a police unit. It is funded by, and reports to, the Home Office, which advises the British government on its counter-terrorism strategy. It supports the protection of the United Kingdom's crowded spaces, hazardous and potentially vulnerable or at risk sites, as well as offering advice on a range of threats and dangerous substances. They work alongside the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure. The National Counter Terrorism Security Office is also responsible for running National Counter Terrorism Security Advisers (CTSA's) network. National Counter Terrorism Security Advisers are embedded in police forces across the UK and provide direct support and guidance to help build the resilience (c.f. also psychological resilience) and security of the United Kingdom from terrorist attacks.

State terrorism refers to acts of terrorism conducted by a state against foreign targets or against its own people There is neither an academic nor an international legal consensus regarding the proper definition of the word "terrorism". Many scholars believe that the actions of governments can be labelled "terrorism". For example, using the term 'terrorism' to mean violent action used with the predominant intention of causing terror, Paul James and Jonathan Friedman distinguish between state terrorism against non-combatants and state terrorism against combatants, including 'Shock and Awe' tactics: