US Cyber Command Hacked ISIS

The US military claims to have "successfully" disrupted the online propaganda efforts of the Islamic State in a hacking operation dating back at least to 2016, according to declassified national security documents released on Jan 21st. Operation Inherent Resolve began in 2016 and it was aimed to combat ISIS and was physically lead by US military forces. 

But what was not publicised at the time was the cyberattacks on ISIS by the US military, Australia and other allies who launched what's been described as the largest offensive cyber operation in US military history. US government documents that have been made public recently show that while a US Cyber Command operation that disrupted ISIS computer networks was largely successful. However, there were significant shortcomings 

Documents obtained through FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests and made public recently reveal that while successful, the US Cyber Command's campaign to hack ISIS faced some issues, such as lacking the storage space to store all the information stolen from ISIS accounts. According to the recently released documents, Cyber Command was simply not prepared to handle the amount of data it had collected. Operators were found to be having trouble collecting data, interagency deconfliction issues, difficulty vetting targets, and, in at least one case, a close call with the operation being discovered by the adversary. 

The six heavily-redacted documents published by the National Security Archive at the George Washington University in Washington, DC, reveal the conclusions of a 120-day assessment US Cyber Command conducted after the completion of Operation Glowing Symphony.

The command did not have the capability to handle the terabytes of data that it collected, despite the fact that operation had planned to pull data once it had infiltrated ISIS-used servers and use it to further the mission.The newly released documents offer the most detailed assessment of the moves against ISIS by a joint task force created in 2016 by president Barack Obama. Carried out in November 2016, Operation Glowing Symphony was a classified offensive cyber operation executed by Joint Task Force Ares (JTF-Ares).

The operation's primary task was to disrupt ISIS' online presence and propaganda efforts, by hacking or hijacking online social media accounts, and taking down websites and servers used by the terrorist group to spread propaganda materials and recruit new members.

According to a 120-day post-mortem assessment of Operation Glowing Symphony, US Cyber Command did not anticipate the magnitude of the data they would eventually end up exfiltrating from compromised ISIS infrastructure. "The assessment reveals that a key challenge to exploitation was storage of the data itself, an indication of the operation's scope relative to USCYBERCOM's capacity at the time," said Michael Martelle, analyst for the National Security Archive. 

A recommendation included in the 120-day post-mortem assessment was that US Cyber Command's Capabilities Development Group (CDG) develop new data storage solutions for future operations. But data storage was just one of the technical and bureaucratic issues that JTF-Ares faced at the time. Other issues mentioned in the assessment include challenges in coordination with other coalition members and US government agencies, and a lengthy and overly complex process for vetting suspects, which made it difficult to engage time-sensitive targets.

National Security Archive:       ZDNet:       CyberScoop:       Channel News Asia:      Dark Net Diaries:     ABC News:

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