New Jersey DHS releases 2016 Threat Assessment

As part of the continued effort to keep New Jersey secure, the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security and Preparedness recently released a Terrorism Threat Assessment 2016.

In the wake of the most high profile year for terrorist attacks since 2001, the report classified likely terror threats into three broad categories – the highest, moderate and those considered the lowest, not prioritized threats.

Leading the highest-level of threats are homegrown violent extremists. Homegrown violent extremists are people who were born or raised within the United States, but due to a variety of factors have been inspired by anti-American propaganda, often through the Internet. This is commonly referred to as becoming “radicalized.” These are often individuals who are working independently from international terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda or ISIS.

Moderate threats include, but are not restricted to, international groups or organizations like ISIS. The assessment categorizes different sects of Al-Qaeda to different threat levels, counting the Yemen affiliate of the group as the most dangerous.

The lowest threat level in the report consists of groups like hackers, animal and environmental extremists, and anarchists.

The full assessment can be found here.