Microterrorism

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My friend called me up last December 29 telling me that something had happened within their subdivision in Taguig. A bomb had killed his neighbor's wife. What makes it more evil is that it was disguised as a gift—the element of surprise so to speak. Now we know these things can really happen. The next time we open a gift, we should know where it came from.

In the realm of ICT, there is an equivalent known as “Logic bomb”. A logic bomb is a set of instructions written in a computer code that can be hidden inside another software and set to activate either at a particular time or upon the programmer’s instructions.

“The democratization of technology, access, information and all those good things is also leading inexorably to the democratization of violence”1


The internet is replete with accounts of actual logic bombs executed. Microterrorism or small-scale terrorism, tagged as the new kind of warfare, is on the rise.2 The rationale behind this is explained in al-Qaeda’s new webzine Inspire (which seeks to recruit suicide bombers): “We do not need to strike big…”Attacking the enemy…is to bleed the enemy to death.” They dub this strategy as “the strategy of a thousand cuts.”3 We have to be extra careful as technology progresses. With the democratization of violence, what happened in my friend’s compound can become commonplace.


1 Fareed Zakaria, Time Magazine Double Issue (December 27, 2010/January 3, 2011)
2 Fareed Zakaria, Time Magazine Double Issue (December 27, 2010/January 3, 2011)
3 Ibid.



Christopher John P. Lao
Blog Entry Number # 7