Pierluigi Paganini March 03, 2016

Senior Pentagon officials on Monday revealed the military’s first use of cyber warfare operations against the ISIL terrorist group.

The US military has started launching cyber attacks against members of the terrorist organization ISIS as part of the operation conducted to take back the Iraqi city of Mosul.

The US military is using cyber tools to contrast the ISIS troops in the area, interfering  members’ operation and communication.

“By encircling and taking this town, we are also working to sever the last major artery between Raqqa and Mosul, an operation critical to dissecting ISIL’s parent tumor into two parts in Iraq and Syria. At the same time, we’re bombing ISIL’s banks as well as oil wells they’ve taken over or coerced others into operating on their behalf. We’re also using cyber tools to disrupt ISIL’s ability to operate and communicate over the virtual battlefield.” announced the Defense Secretary Ash Carter at a Monday Pentagon press briefing. that U.S. forces are using cyber tools to disrupt ISIS’s ability to operate and communicate over the virtual battlefield.

According to Carter, the goal of the cyber operations is the disruption of the ISIL‘s command and control, particularly in Syria.

” I think you’re referring to our use of cyber which we have talked about generally. In the counter-ISIL campaign in — particularly in Syria to interrupt, disrupt ISIL’s command and control, to cause them to lose confidence in their networks, to overload their network so that they can’t function, and do all of these things that will interrupt their ability to command and control forces there, control the population and the economy.” added Carter.

“So this is something that’s new in this war, not something you would’ve seen back in the Gulf War, but it’s an important new capability and it is an important use of our Cyber Command and the reason that Cyber Command was established in the first place.”

The US Government has already started the cyber operations that the US Cyber Command is carrying out.

“we’re trying to both physically and virtually isolate ISIL, limit their ability to conduct command and control, limit their ability to communicate with each other, limit their ability to conduct operations locally and tactically.” said Joint Chiefs Chairman General Joseph Dunford.

“And frankly, they’re going to experience some friction that’s associated with us and some friction that’s just associated with the normal course of events in dealing in the information age.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – ISIS, Terrorism)