Katherine Seligman

About the author: Katherine Seligman is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Lone wolf terrorists are becoming more dangerous than white supremacist groups. Lone wolves are difficult to monitor because of their low visibility and lack of social networking. Those acting as lone terrorists have carried out successful attacks, such as when Richard Baumhammers targeted Jews in a shooting spree that ended in five deaths in Los Angeles in 2000. An important tool of the lone wolf, the Internet allows such individuals who harbor white supremacist ideas to act out in the privacy of their own homes by sending hate mail to minority organizations. White supremacists who act alone cannot be linked to any particular group and are therefore difficult to detect and...