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UP FRONTSaturday 27 February 2016
APNewsBreak: Pentagon starts aggressive cyberwar against IS
Defense Secretary Ash Carter testifies before the House Appropriations subcommittee on the and the Internet to recruit he told commanders that
president’s 2017 budget during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. The U.S. military has fighters and inspire follow- beefing up cyberwarfare
launched a newly aggressive campaign of cyberattacks against Islamic State militants, targeting ers, U.S. officials told The As- against the Islamic State
the group’s abilities to use social media and the Internet to recruit fighters and inspire followers, sociated Press. group was a test for them,
U.S. officials told The Associated Press. U.S. officials confirmed and that they should have
that operations launched both the capability and
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh) out of Fort Meade, Mary- the will to wage the online
land, where the U.S. Cyber war.
LOLITA C. BALDOR cyber commanders to be tant group. Command is based, have But the military cyber fight is
Associated Press more aggressive in the fight According to several U.S. focused on disrupting the limited by concerns within
WASHINGTON (AP) — Not against Islamic State, the officials, the attacks are group’s online activities. the intelligence agencies
long after Defense Secre- U.S. ramped up its offensive targeting the group’s abili- The officials said the ef- that blocking the group’s
tary Ash Carter prodded his cyberattacks on the mili- ties to use social media fort is getting underway as Internet access could hurt
operators try a range of intelligence gathering.
attacks to see what works Officials said Carter told
and what doesn’t. They commanders that he the
declined to discuss details, U.S. to be able to impact
other than to say that the Islamic State operations
attacks include efforts to without diminishing the in-
prevent the group from dications or warnings U.S.
distributing propaganda, intelligence officers can
videos or other types of re- glean about what the
cruiting and messaging on group is doing.
social media sites such as On Jan. 27, Carter and
Twitter, and across the In- Marine Gen. Joseph Dun-
ternet in general. ford, chairman of the Joint
Other attacks could in- Chiefs of Staff, went to Fort
clude attempts to stop in- Meade for an update.
surgents from conducting Officials familiar with Cart-
financial or logistical trans- er’s meetings said the
actions online. secretary was frustrated
The surge of computer- that as Cyber Command
based military operations has grown and devel-
by U.S. Cyber Command oped over the past several
began shortly after Carter years, it was still focused
met with commanders at on the cyberthreats from
Fort Meade last month. nations, such as Iran, Rus-
Several U.S. officials spoke sia and China, rather than
about the cyber cam- building a force to block
paign on condition of ano- the communications and
nymity because they were propaganda campaigns
not authorized to discuss it of Internet-savvy insur-
publicly. Much of the effort gents.
is classified. “He was right to say they
Carter mentioned the op- could be more forward
erations briefly Thursday, leaning about what they
telling a House Appropria- could possibly do against
tions subcommittee only ISIS,” said James Lewis, a
that Cyber Command is cybersecurity expert at the
beginning to conduct op- Center for Strategic and
erations against the Islamic International Studies. “You
State group. He declined could disrupt their support
to say more in a public set- networks, their business net-
ting. works, their propaganda
The more aggressive at- and recruitment networks.”
tacks come after months However, Lewis added, the
of pressure from Carter, U.S. needs to be careful
who has been frustrated about disrupting the Inter-
with the belief that the Pen- net to insure that attacks
tagon — and particularly don’t also affect civilian
Cyber Command — was networks or systems need-
losing the war in the cyber ed for critical infrastructure
domain. and other public necessi-
Late last year Carter told ties.
cyber commanders they U.S. officials have long
had 30 days to bring him been stymied by militants’
options for how the military ability to use the Internet
could use its cyberwarfare as a vehicle for inspiring
capabilities against the so-called lone wolf attack-
group’s deadly insurgency ers in Western nations, radi-
across Iraq and Syria, and calized after reading pro-
spreading to Libya and paganda easily available
Afghanistan. Officials said online.q
