What Is Lone Wolf Terrorism?

On March 22, 2017 a terrorist attack occurred in London. It is the deadliest attack to hit the UK in 12 years, which resulted in 4 people dying and about 50 other victims. The attack was administered by a 52-year old British man named, Khalid Masood. The attack began on the Westminster Bridge where Masood drove his car at high speeds and then mounted the pavement, running over pedestrians. He then crashed into the railings outside of the Palace of Westminster where he sprinted through the New Palace Yard carrying a knife. While in the yard, he stabbed an unarmed officer before being shot and killed by the bodyguard of Defense Secretary Sir Michael Fallon. Officials are still investigating Masood’s past and what led him to become radicalized.
This is also referred to as lone wolf terrorism.The individual will typically become inspired by the message and ideology of a radical group and then carry out their own attacks. Influences in the community or overseas and online propaganda are usually where the individual finds the information that leads them to becoming radicalized. Islamic extremists are the most typically seen, but there have been other ideologies that have led to attacks as well. The attack in London is an example of this because Masood is believed to have been inspired by Islamist ideology and acted alone in the attack. In lone wolf attacks it is common to see larger terrorist groups taking responsibility for inspiring the attack. This was seen in the London attack after an ISIS affiliated news agency claimed responsibility for the attack. Another typical characteristic of lone wolf terrorist attacks is the use of a car, knife, gun or similar weapon. This is seen in Masood’s attack with his use of a car and a knife. Due to these perpetrators acting alone, nations have found it difficult to stop the
As a result of this, it has become harder for nations to stop the attacks because it is difficult to gain knowledge about the attacks before they happen. In the London attack, Britain had no prior knowledge of the attack and Masood was not under any current investigations. Without prior knowledge to the attacks, it is almost impossible to stop lone wolf terrorist attacks. For that reason, there is essentially two possible solutions for nations each dealing with the issues of privacy or security. One possible solution is for nations to still respect its citizens privacy. Most nations follow this solution and simply have ruled for privacy rather than searching for potential attackers. With this solution the nations have accepted that lone wolf attacks are the downside of its citizens keeping their privacy. Another possible solution is having a nation’s intelligence program looking into all of its citizens online data. This solution could potentially stop more attacks from occurring, but citizens would have to trade in their privacy for it. Each of these solutions involve a different balance between privacy and security and both have positives and negatives to them making it up to each nation to decide what is best for their