There are of course many iconic parts of London. But this grey, bustling patch, next to the Thames - with St Paul's and the Tower on the skyline – felt as London-y as you can can get. One day, I even saw then-mayor of London Boris Johnson tootling by on his bike.

Apart from a modest stipend for food and travel, the internship wasn't paid. But I loved having an almost grown-up excuse to be in London. And I was doing work that impressed my parents.

I was one of several research monkeys helping with a two-year study into the difference between violent terrorists and non-violent radicals. In the shadow of the 2005 London bombings and 9/11, we trawled through profiles of Canadian and European "home grown" terrorists, looking for patterns. The research, published by Demos in 2010, found violent extremists were less likely to have a university education than non-violent radicals. Few of them had a devout Islamic upbringing and they often refused to engage in the mainstream political process.

But this came with the disclaimer: there is no single path to terrorism – humans are complicated and their behaviour is "unpredictable and non-linear". Therefore, the study cautioned, the threat of violent radicalisation "can be managed but not 'solved' or reduced to nothing".

Seven years on, a lot has changed and a lot hasn't.

Instead of Al-Qaeda, we are talking about Islamic State, while people like British Prime Minister Theresa May and security experts are increasingly worried about how internet advances and encrypted messaging services (like Telegram and WhatsApp) are helping would-be terrorists radicalise and connect.

But Australia is still fighting wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan, in large part to combat global terrorism. Domestic terrorism continues to dominate our fears at home and the picture of who is likely to become a "home grown" terrorist remains fuzzy.

According to Australian terrorism expert, Levi West, beyond "really broad brush strokes", there isn't a clear predictive picture of someone who engages in terrorism in the Western world. "There isn't a profile," he says.

Indeed, there has been a move away from the idea that terrorists are marginalised, existing on the edges of society and uneducated. Labor MP Anne Aly was an academic researching counter-radicalisation before she was elected to Federal Parliament in 2016. "The terrorist profile is changing," she told Fairfax Media in the wake of the Manchester bombing. "They are getting younger and they are increasingly known to police and intelligence agencies, if not for terrorist activities then for other violent crimes."

One of Aly's projects was building a database of the life histories of about 100 Western-based terrorists and terror masterminds. Through this, she found a significant proportion of terrorists are now coming to the religious aspect through their already-violent backgrounds – not the other way around as it was 10 years ago. So, terrorists don't necessarily go on a long, philosophical process of radicalisation. The Islamic terror element can be tacked on, almost as an afterthought.

Meanwhile, the terror act itself is becoming more accessible. As West notes, there is a trend away from sophisticated plots involving hijacked planes flying into buildings towards "DIY" terrorism: knife attacks, taking people hostage, driving trucks into crowds. West, who is the director of terrorism studies at the Australian Graduate School of Policing and Security, says this approach is "simple, easy and requires no training". And means there is no need to sustain people's involvement and discretion for months while complex plans are developed.

"You wake up this morning, you're committed right now, off you go," he says.

All of this – the vague personal profile, the lack of long, rigorous radicalisation, the almost casual nature of attacks – makes it increasingly hard for authorities to keep a grip on domestic terrorism.

You can see the frustration brewing politically as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews traded insults over Monday's attack in Brighton, which was carried out by a man with a vibrant criminal history but whom authorities were not particularly concerned about.

It also makes it increasingly scary for people watching at home as yet another terror attack unfolds on the news or in their neighbourhood. When attacks happen in familiar and favourite places – London Bridge, a pop concert, suburban Melbourne – it is difficult to remember we are far, far more likely to be killed by cancer or a car than by a terrorist.

West's advice is to follow the example of the man in London, who gained much Internet praise for ambling away from the attacks on Saturday night, with his beer still in hand. This means we stay calm, don't overreact (and say, intern Australians on terror watchlists) and deny terrorists the attention and emotional response they crave.

In other words, says West, "don't put the pint down".