Grid Computing: Combating Global Terrorism with the World Wide Grid

Introduction

Terrorism can be defined as the use of violence to cause harm, large-scale destruction and fear in order to force change in societal behaviour or to force a society to acquiesce to the goals of the terrorist(s) (Garrison, 2007). Another definition by Ruby (2002) is that terrorism is politically motivated violence perpetrated in a clandestine manner against non-combatants in order to create a fear state of mind in an audience different from the victims. From these definitions, the September 11^th attack can be seen as a way of sending dangerous signals to the U.S. government to change its policies against some interest groups rather than the real victims of the attack.

Terrorism dates back as far as 2000 years ago. Some of the early terrorist attacks were carried by the Jewish resistant group known as Sicarii-Zealots (AD 66-72) whose targets are the Romans in Judea. Others are the reign of terror in France (1793-1794), the Anarchists in Europe (1871-1914), the Soviet Revolution (1917), the Irish Rebellion (1919-1921) and Terrorism in the Middle-East and Islamic Fundamentalism (1960s-date). However, the sophistication, targets, victims, perpetrators, causes and justifications offered by terrorists and their collaborators have changed significantly over the years.

Never in the history of the world had terrorism received attention as in the 21^st Century. Terrorists have attacked cities like London, Madrid, Moscow, World Trade Centre, Pentagon and Mumbai. These attacks usually witnessed mass wanton destruction of lives and properties with devastating and lasting psychological, socio-political and economic consequences. Very recently, a major terrorist attack was exposed and stopped at Heathrow Airport in London on August 10, 2006 due to efficient, pervasive, secured, coordinated and timely distributed access to information by the intelligence personnel leading to the arrest of about 24 national and international suspects. Another two attempts were thwarted in London and Glasgow early this year again. It appears that timely distributed information about terrorists’ activities is a great strategy in combating the menace of terrorism. This is where grid computing can play a great role with its pervasive, secured, dynamic and distributed data and information services. Grid computing connects islands of information sources and link different agents around the world to collaborate and respond immediately to disasters (Assuncao and Buyya, 2005). This form of collaboration is possible through efficient high volumes of data processing using data clustering techniques for counter-terrorism (Rajasekaran et al., 2005).