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• Financing. The Internet also provides opportunities for terrorist organizations
to carry out activities aimed at securing funding. The possible involvement of
terrorist organizations in Internet fraud, extortion and money-laundering as a
means of obtaining financing is of particular interest.
• Dissemination of training manuals. Terrorist organizations disseminate
manuals on terrorist techniques, the manufacture of explosives and weapons
handling via the Internet.
• Information-gathering to prepare terrorist attacks. The Internet is a very
important source of information that is often used by terrorist organizations to
obtain information on the targets of their activities, whether individuals,
organizations or infrastructures.
3.
3.1
Measures taken at the national level to combat Internet use by
terrorist organizations
Legislative measures
Measures adopted by different States include the significant efforts made by
Spain in recent years, and particularly in 2007. It has included in its legal system a
series of laws relating to information security and the free exercise of the rights and
freedoms recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Spanish
Constitution. Comprehensive legislation and regulations incorporating both purely
national elements and European Union directives have been developed with the aim
of meeting these objectives. New information security criteria have been applied
based on the premise that in order to achieve a reasonable degree of protection, as
well as to maintain the confidentiality of information, it is in most cases essential to
preserve the integrity and availability of the information. In particular, the following
laws and regulations have been enacted:
• Organization Act No. 5/1992 of 29 October 1992 on regulation of the
electronic processing of personal data with the aim of establishing
precautionary mechanisms to prevent breaches of privacy resulting from the
processing of information; and implementing regulations.
• Organization Act No. 15/1999 of 13 December 1999 on the protection of
personal data, which aims to guarantee and protect public freedoms and the
fundamental rights of individuals, especially their honour and their personal
and family privacy, during the processing of personal data; and implementing
regulations.
• Royal Decree-Law No. 14/1999 of 17 September 1999 on electronic signatures,
adopted with the aim of encouraging companies, citizens and public authorities
to quickly incorporate new technologies for secure electronic communications
into their activities, and transposing into Spanish law Directive 1999/93/EC of
the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 1999 on a
Community framework for electronic signatures. Act No. 59/2003 of
19 December 2003 on electronic signatures updated this framework by
incorporating the amendments deemed advisable in light of the experience
gained since its entry into force.
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