How Real Is the Terrorist Threat

In my opinion the terrorist threat to the commercial sector is a very real and serious threat to the continuity of a business, but not all companies face the same direct threat, most companies would be affected by the collateral effects of a terrorist incident.
This narrative will not comment on the cyber terrorist which is as big a threat to businesses as is the destruction or damage to their premises as this is a paper in itself.
The UK has long faced terrorism from various sources the most significant threat throughout the 70’s and 80’s was from the Irish Republican Dissidents, their targeting was mainly of personnel, government officials, military personnel and police officers, however in the 90’s they changed tactics and started targeting high value commercial and government buildings such as; in 1992 the Baltic Exchange, 1996 the Docklands Bomb both in the city of London, bombings by the IRA on the mainland were not always targeted to London in 1993 the IRA targeted a gas storage facility in Warrington and the Manchester bombing in 1996 which targeted a shopping centre, whilst all of these incidents were shocking they were not intended to take life, they were more to disrupt everyday life and disrupt the business community but the real bonus was the publicity all these and more terrorist incidents received, this on Britain’s shores heralded a new era for the terrorist were the commercial damage, disruptive value and publicity gained was the main reason to pick a target.
During the peace process of the late 90’s and 2000’s the IRA scaled down its operations and by 2005 announced the end of their campaign, thus ended the longest running terror campaign in British history, however a new campaign was just beginning on these shores from extreme Islamist’s (extreme Islamist’s should not be confused with Islam. Most serious Islamic scholars reject any suggestion that their religion can be used to justify acts of terrorism, extreme Islamists distort the