The U.S. has turned its cyber-arsenal on ISIS

U.S. Cyber Command, the cyber-warfare cousin of the National Security Agency, has been attacking the Islamic State, disrupting their communications, recruitment, and day-to-day operations, The New York Times reported Sunday, citing interviews with "more than a half-dozen senior and midlevel officials," some of whom spoke on record. Cyber Command typically focuses on the nations that use the internet to attack the U.S. — Russia, China, Iran, North Korea — but President Obama has added ISIS to the list of targets.

Any discussion of cyber-warfare is "exceedingly rare," The New York Times notes, and officials were cleared to talk this time in part because ISIS is not a country so there is no legal issue about violating sovereignty. The tactical reason to discuss the cybercampaign is that "a bit of boasting might degrade the enemy's trust in its communications, jumbling and even deterring some actions," officials told The Times, and "rattle the Islamic State's commanders, who have begun to realize that sophisticated hacking efforts are manipulating their data."

The campaign has been carried out by Cyber Command "mission teams," the electronic equivalent of Special Operations forces, and involves learning the terrorist organization's online habits so the U.S. military hackers can alter messages to direct militants into traps or intercept and divert electronic payments. "We are dropping cyberbombs," Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work told The Times this month. "We have never done that before." Obama is meeting with the leaders of Britain, France, Italy, and Germany in Hanover on Monday, and the war against ISIS is on the agenda. You can read more about the anti-ISIS cyber-war at The New York Times.

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