"There will be increasing consolidation and unity in 2003 between fundamentalist and anti-capitalist hacker groups with a united agenda against Western interests. The Israel-Palestine conflict, the Allies' War on Terrorism as well as the India-Pakistan issue on Kashmir will continue to bring fundamentalist hackers closer to each other. The war with Iraq will accelerate this process."

"As digital crime proliferates in 2003, unsuspecting individuals and small to medium size businesses with broadband access could also become surrogates for increasingly targeted Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks as well as providing cover for terrorists."

"The vacuum left behind post the removal of Saddam Hussein's power base in Iraq could trigger political power fluctuations around Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain as well as Iran and Central Asia. This would affect energy prices, business and consumer confidence. It may well spur a wave of asymmetric CBRN-DS type attacks against the West."

"Post war Iraq is a huge challenge for the leadership of Western democracies. Images of millions of dislocated Iraqis or their lack of appropriate protection post the bombings from death or disease would not help the perspective of a just war."

"It would be critical for any participating leader to have dealt with the Iraq situation successfully without causing severe economic disruption - from terrorism or loss of business confidence - at home."

"Equating hacker groups with terrorist organisations that kill people with powerful explosives may not be justified. Having said that, the biggest threat could still be a blended threat: digital attacks that cripple emergency response, transport or telecommunications with some insider help, could be employed by terrorists in conjunction with conventional or CBRN-DS attacks to magnify the effects of their intended disruption and damage."

On the issue of timing, DK Matai will state, "It is only a matter of time. Blended global threats of CBRN-DS type terrorism coupled with conventional attacks from fundamentalist groups will materialize in the West and it will be difficult to predict the full impact of such attacks on health care, financial services, government services, transport and distribution."

"Asymmetric warfare relies on global mobility and access to local specialist knowledge. We need to be extremely alert in order to thwart globally organised attacks targeting the West."