Terrorists and their supporters call it Jihad electroni, the electronic Jihad. For them, exploiting the Internet is considered a vital part of raising money, spreading their ideology, building up support, and inspiring others to become terrorists. To a lesser extent, the Internet is also used for training, by circulating training manuals and videos, for discussing targets, and for planning and organizing operations.

Given how important the Internet is to terrorists and to the greater radical Islamist movement that supports them, monitoring the activities of terrorists and suspected terrorists in cyberspace should be nearly as paramount as monitoring their activities on the ground.