The word ‘terrorism’ covers many different types of activity from bombings and kidnap to cyber attacks and hacking. For the first time, START: a Centre of Excellence of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has made available the Global Terrorism Database (GTD).This comprehensive online resource has been compiled to cover all terrorist events worldwide since 1970 and includes almost 80,000 cases to date. The GTD gives information on the date and location of the incident, the weapons used and nature of the target, the number of casualties, and -- when identifiable -- the identity of the perpetrator. The idea behind this is to improve understanding of historical and emerging threats and, as the GTD will be continually updated, to identify terrorism trends.
The GTD is a valuable and interesting resource for those who need to analyse such information and include it in their security risk analysis for their own businesses and organisations. Access to the Database is free. Follow the link to the START homepage:
http://www.start.umd.edu/data/gtd/
