Pentagon officials are reporting that the US Cyber command has begun an “aggressive cyberwar” against ISIS, which they say is focused on keeping ISIS off of social media sites like Facebook, as well as making it difficult for them to conduct online transactions.
Officials are refusing to discuss any of the details of what exactly this involves, ,but noted that at present they are still “ramping up” the effort, so there may eventually be more obvious effects from the military’s Internet operations.
The operations were confirmed by Defense Secretary Ash Carter at the House Appropriations subcommittee, but he insisted that it was inappropriate to discuss the operation in a public setting. Carter is said to have pushed heavily for this effort.
Carter’s eagerness to launch a “cyberwar” in earnest had previously been resisted by the intelligence community, which has expressed concern that chasing ISIS off of social media and other very public forms of communication could limit their ability to spy on the group’s activities.