U.S. Wages Cyber-War Against Islamic State, Braces for Counterattack…(This Is Not Going To End Well…)
by JOHN HAYWARD
BreitBart.com
2 Mar 2016
One of the missions for U.S. special forces troops deployed against ISIS in Iraq will be gathering intelligence for American cyber-commandos, who are already striking the Islamic State’s computer systems. The Obama administration has warned American utility companies about the danger of cyberattacks against our infrastructure, possibly as a result of hostilities in the Middle East.
Reuters cites Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter explaining how “cyber attacks, particularly in Syria, were designed to prevent Islamic State from commanding its forces, and Washington was looking to accelerate the cyber war against the Sunni militant group.”
“The methods we’re using are new. Some of them will be surprising,” Carter promised at a Pentagon news conference.
Joint Chiefs chairman General Joseph Dunford added that cyber attacks would be part of the effort to recapture Mosul from the Islamic State, depriving ISIS of its Iraqi stronghold.
Naturally, both Carter and Dunford said it would jeopardize the security and effectiveness of this electronic espionage to discuss its details, with Dunford saying he did not want ISIS to know the difference between U.S. hacker attacks and the “friction that’s just associated with the normal course of events in dealing in the Information Age.”
That is the strategy embraced by all top-shelf hackers. Confusion and uncertainty are vital resources; the best hacks go unnoticed by the target for a long time. This recalls the even older wisdom of spies and code-breakers from the analog era, who understood the importance of preventing the enemy from realizing his secure communications had been compromised.
The Baltimore Sun reported on Tuesday that DoD was calling upon military hackers at Fort Meade to attack the Islamic State, and described Defense Secretary Carter’s comments as a “striking shift in the way the government talks about its ability to launch cyberattacks against its enemies.”
The Rest…HERE
