Abstract. The article is the first publication in Russia providing a first-hand review and introduction into the methodology of the U.S.-based Global Terrorism Database. It also displays some key findings from the GTD data. The findings show trends in total and fatal terrorist attacks, both globally and, specifically, for Russia and the United States, as well as in terrorist tactics, weapons and targets. It concludes by assessing comparative strengths and weaknesses of open-source data collection and analysis in terrorism studies.