Tri-Service
UK 'Has Started Cyber Attacks' On So-Called Islamic State
The wars we know are all too tangible. They are blood, sweat and tears; they are loud, dirty, and destructive.
You can’t touch, see, or hear cyberspace, it can be hard to see it as real.
But look at it like this, IS has been using cyberspace as a Command & Control system.
It has used its powerful communication capability as a force multiplier, spreading its physical fight beyond places like Iraq and Syria.
It has used the internet as a propaganda tool, to reach out to sympathisers and supporters, to recruit and train the people it calls its soldiers. It has used the internet to talk to them.
The Defence Secretary, understandably, would not go into detail about what has been done, but it is highly likely IS’s internet base has been targeted.
He told the RUSI and Ministry of Defence Cyber Symposium “It is important that our adversaries know there is a price to pay if they use cyber weapons against us, and that we have the capability to project power in cyberspace as elsewhere”
The West has long acknowledged that the Islamist militants had stolen a march on them in their use of the internet.
Now two years after first acknowledging a British offensive cyber capability, the UK has acknowledged using that capability for the first time. It is Britain’s first act of cyber warfare.
Cyber is not the battlespace of the future, it is already a place where war is being fought.
Related topics
Join Our Newsletter
