Cyber-Terrorizing

"[The] primary aim of terrorism is the achievement of psychological effects on a target audience."
"While social media has revolutionized the way persons communicate in the 21st Century, such media has also provided terrorists with a valuable and useful tool with which to generate fear and anxiety as a means of intimidating governments or societies at large."
"An emerging trend in force protection is the extent to which social media is being employed by organized terror networks to orchestrate protracted campaigns of online harassment directed against the friends and families of self-identified military members."
Canadian military intelligence assessment

The cyber-security action plan is meant to help the federal government brace for potential attacks. This file photo shows a command post for war games with U.S. and South Korean soldiers working together in a U.S. military camp in the centre of Seoul on March 15, 2013. Photo: JAE-HWAN/AFP/Getty Images

This is clarified as an "emerging trend" identified by a secret military intelligence report of the Department of National Defence leading to its growing concern over the security of military personnel in Canada. Similar concerns are being expressed elsewhere as western countries are faced with the alarmingly growing sophistication of terrorist groups, in particular the Islamic State group, in the use of social media.

From their incitements to terrorism and lone-wolf attacks, to their recruitment efforts enticing Western Muslims to jihad, and the videos aired on Internet sites geared to horrify the sensibilities of decent human beings by their barbaric sadism seemingly so magnetically attractive to potential jihadis, and now to the revelations on line of names, addresses and personal information of military personnel, terrorists are entering the realm of pervasive threats anywhere, everywhere.

"Individual members are highly visible and powerful symbols of the military and the Government of Canada, and the unique position of trust held by the CAF in Canadian society makes military members vulnerable to predation by adversarial or criminal elements."
"The use of social media platforms to target members of the Canadian Armed Forces is a concerning, but not an unheard-of threat."
Daniel Blouin, National Defence spokesman

Online threats made against Canadian military personnel, their friends and family now pose yet another distinctly compromised concern relating to life and security far distant from the conflicts taking place in Iraq and Syria, where Islamic State and al-Qaeda incite their followers living in the West to make an effort to join active jihadism not merely sympathize with jihad, emphasizing the honour in martyrdom for a cause meant to further Islamic conquest of the non-Muslim world.

Leading to some changes in what was once acceptable; photographing send-offs of Canadian Forces members to combat duty abroad is no longer permitted under the new National Defence restricted media interview initiative. And nor are members of the Armed Forces encouraged to wear their military uniforms when not on duty, to avoid potential confrontations or attacks such as the one that killed Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent in Quebec, in October.