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The Bonn Summit, in 1978, agreed to sanctions against states which aided and abetted the hijacking of aircraft. In the process of finazling this agreement, the attendees attendees attempted to spell out a legal definition for terrorism. The result was the following:
"Acts of kidnapping, hostage-taking, bomb attacks on innocents, hijacking..."
as well as other activities against the innocent. Another act of terrorism that can have profound effects is the act of assassination. The statistics of terrorist events have declined since the outbreak in the Middle East, but not so much that hardly a day goes by that i some new terrorist event can be found in even the most simple search of news media.
Annually, the U.S. Department of State updates a list of countries who it feels are aiding terrorists and publishes that list and the official U.S. definition of terrorism. As part of this definition, the U.S. State Department publishes a background document which describes known terrorist organizations.
Also very important in this area is how the U.S. Government has legally defined the terrorists and states that sponsor terrorism for purposes of restricting import and export -- brining sanctions against them.