A comparative analysis of the main approaches to defining cyberterrorism in modern world political science

The research described the development of the notion of cyberterrorism in global political science since the 1980s when it was first introduced. The paper presented the works of American scientists mainly because the term and the main approaches to defining it were forged in the USA. The research explained the main difference between scientific and public approaches to defining cyberterrorism and provided possible reasons for discrepancy between them. Cyberterrorism, or pure cyberterrorism and traditional cyberterrorism, was interpreted in a narrow and broad sense, and the drawbacks of the latter were analyzed. Besides, the main difference between cyberterrorism and cybercrime was demonstrated. Moreover, the author introduced the concept of digital jihad, or terrorism in cyberspace, forged as an alternative to debates on the narrow and broad definitions of cyberterrorism. It is concluded that further consideration of cyberterrorism is essential despite the absence of its universal definition.