International Outsourcing, Personal Data, and Cyber Terrorism: Approaches for Oversight

Abstract

An individual’s personal information can be a valuable commodity to terrorists. With such data, terrorists can engage in a variety of illicit activities including creating false bank accounts, procuring various official documents or even creating mass panic. Unfortunately, such personal data is generally easy to access, exchange, or collect via online media including Web sites, chat rooms, or e-mails. Moreover, certain common business practices, particularly those related to data processing in international outsourcing, can facilitate such activities by placing personal information into a legal grey area that makes it easy to misuse. For these reasons, organizations and individuals need to be aware of the potential for such data misuse as well as be informed of steps they can take to curtail such abuses. This essay examines the privacy/data abuse problems related to international outsourcing and presents approaches designed to prevent the misuse of personal information by cyber terrorists.