ALBANY, N.Y. -- The details of Alex Ciccolo's alleged plan, a mass killing of innocent victims, are eerily familiar. 

"That ties back to the Boston Marathon," said terrorism expert Rick Mathews. "The pressure cooker is the one big thing. It's also something that has been described in some of the training material from Al Qaeda to help people learn more about how to do bad things."

In an affidavit released Monday, it was determined Ciccolo had been recorded talking with a cooperating witness about a plan to use a pressure cooker filled with black powder, nails, ball bearings and glass, in places where large numbers of people congregate, like college cafeterias. 

"It's just another example of the increased radicalization of domestic folks," said terrorism expert Rick Mathews.  

Mathews heads the National Center for Security and Preparedness at UAlbany; a group that researches terrorism and trains responders to terrorist attacks.    

As ISIL grows in numbers, Mathews sees the trend of attacks getting smaller. 

"Because the bigger events take a lot more communication, a lot more coordination among the bad guys, so it makes it easier to catch them sometimes," Mathews said. "So I think we're going to be seeing many more of the so-called smaller ones."

Small, but still potentially deadly; like this alleged plot, to be carried out by just one person; a man, Mathews said, who developed a sudden interest in a radicalized form of Islam, and began making threats of violence.

"It's not uncommon, it's just uncommon to see it with a police officer's son, who actually turned him in. He alerted the authorities about this guy's behavior some time before, which is what helped the FBI track him."

While it may seem that anyone could suddenly become enamored with violence, Mathews says that's not the case. 

"It takes people who are already of a mind to want to become radicalized. I don't think you can just walk in and because there's a terrorist organization, take somebody who has no reception to that to do it. I think you have to take someone who wants to."

Sorting out dissatisfied people who just want to express their views from dissatisfied people who want to commit a crime is the difficult challenge law enforcement faces; a challenge at which this time, they succeeded.