Terrorists Copying Hacker Tactics

Cyber-terrorists are trying to break into government networks around the world using the same tactics as run-of-the-mill hackers, a U.S. State Department official said Tuesday.

"The same technique that a hacker would use, the same technology, will be utilized by somebody with a different political motivation," Michael Alcorn, branch chief of the State Department's Office of Anti-Terrorism Assistance, in a statement made to the AFP wire service in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

The Office of Anti-Terrorism Assistance trains foreign law enforcement personnel on a variety of terrorism-related topics, including cyber-security.

"The problem we're all facing is a global borderless problem, where attacks can occur anywhere in the world and originate from anywhere else in the world," Alcorn told the AFP.

He went on to say that cyber-security problems and resulting terrorist activity was widespread, and claimed that some of the evidence of attacks has come from overseas law enforcement agencies which have confiscated militants' computers.