“It is an important use of our Cyber Command – and the reason that Cyber Command was established in the first place”.
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Carter and Dunford, the Pentagon’s top civilian and uniformed officials, both suggested the attacks were aimed at overloading the militants’ networks. The New York Times recently reported that the USA prepared a campaign for their use, Nitro Zeus, in the event that a diplomatic effort to halt the program broke down. The U.S. defense chief announced the board’s creation on Wednesday during his third trip to Silicon Valley since taking office just over a year ago.
The hacking could prompt Islamic State operatives to switch to older communications technologies that could leave them more vulnerable to targeting, he added. We do that, too. “The companies and the government have a mutual interest in working together; each one needs the other”, he said.
Forces on the ground in Iraq have retaken Ramadi and are making progress in Anbar, while the coalition is making “operationally significant strides” in Syria, he said.
It could also sharply demoralize Islamic State fighters, raising questions about whether the group could still credibly call itself a caliphate.
The Pentagon is building 133 cyber teams by 2018, including 27 that are designed for combat and will work with regional commands to support warfighting operations. What you can do is leverage the tools that have been developed for this particular operation, for other operations down the road, he said, using an acronym for Islamic State.
Mr. Carter declined to describe what types of attacks US’ cyber forces were launching against ISIS, but he pointed out that “the methods we’re using are new”.
“I’m certain they will want help and the global community will help”, Carter said at a press briefing.
This ever-more important domain of modern warfare has become potentially more impactful than ever with the recent revelation that the USA was planning to wreak havoc on Iran via cyber attacks if the Iranian nuclear deal went sideways and Iran lashed out in response.
Cyber Command is relatively new. Its distinct from the use of military aircraft or ground sensors to disrupt or eavesdrop, a standard USA tactic.
Carter dismissed concerns that the blocking of social media sites will limit intelligence gathering on the group. As a symbol of the US military, “The Pentagon” is often used metonymically to refer to the US Department of Defense. Commanders have moved to a town on the edge of Kurdish-controlled areas to complete the final planning, he said. “Sometimes, those other means are easier for us to listen to”. “We’ve said we have a small number of special forces that have been operating in Syria but we’re not going to get into details that might expose them to risk”. Aside from being the country’s second-largest city, with a population of more than one million people, Mosul has been transformed into a virtual fortress since it fell to ISIS in 2014.
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“We’re doing airstrikes there constantly”, McGurk said. They argue that an adverse ruling would spark a flood of requests for similar tools from local, state and federal prosecutors, and they fear it would make smartphones and other encrypted devices more vulnerable to hackers.
