The world today is obviously threatened by different actors than it used to be 60 years ago. Globalization, information technology developments, and the growing importance given to the “free”, “non-regulated” internet are shifting governments’ focus from traditional threats such as military concerns towards something else; wars can now be fought online, and extremely sensitive information can be accessed by highly-skilled, well-motivated private individuals while they are having their breakfast on the other side of the world.
In the current context, there is a push for more regulation of the virtual world, while cyberterrorism has become quite the usual topic in the media. A very popular example can be given by the revelations made by Edward Snowden, a former US government contractor who released a series of documents containing extremely sensitive information regarding secret surveillance activities conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA). Snowden was forced to flee the country and, after moving from Hawaii to Hong-Kong and then Russia, his whereabouts remain to this day unclear; Snowden became in the process, one of the most well-known people in the world.
Civitas Politics 