Security News > 2020 > January > Documents Describe US Cyber Command's Campaign to Hack ISIS

The U.S. Cyber Command's campaign to hack ISIS and disrupt its media operations faced some challenges, including a lack of data storage, but ultimately proved successful, according to government documents from 2016 that were made public Tuesday.

The heavily-redacted documents published by the National Security Archive, a not-for-profit research organization, show that U.S. Cyber Command was not prepared to handle the amount of information it collected when it hacked ISIS. The command, which is part of the U.S. Defense Department and includes units from all military branches, also faced problems with interagency coordination and the lengthy process of vetting ISIS cyber targets.

The Cyber Command launched its most complex offensive cyber campaign, Operation Glowing Symphony, on Nov. 10, 2016, with the aim of targeting ISIS's media and cyberspace operations.

In another heavily redacted section of the document, the Cyber Command mentions an "Opportunity" that ISIS may have exploited while the operation was being carried out.

While the documents showed that Cyber Command and Joint Task Force Ares had some difficulty in assessing whether the operation disrupted all of the ISIS propaganda and media operations, the efforts were deemed successful.

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https://www.inforisktoday.com/documents-describe-us-cyber-commands-campaign-to-hack-isis-a-13637