Pentagon Development of Specialized Malware to Sabotage ISIS Online Opposed by FBI
The war on terror is nearly a perpetual battle that has many governments around the world using their brightest talent to come up with creative ways to combat the many current and future efforts of ISIS (Daesh, IS, ISIL). A new step that Pentagon officials are taking is one that the US military will spearhead in the development of specialized malware that will be used to sabotage and counteract ISIS members and their terrorizing activities performed over the internet.
Just a few weeks ago, we divulged on reports of the Anonymous hacker group taking matters into their hands to attack ISIS over the internet by taking down a multitude of social accounts belonging to the terrorist group members. While the hacktivist group was successful in performing many of their attack methods against ISIS, the terrorist group is still very active and alive using the internet as a means of communication and recruitment platform for new members.
In getting the best and brightest minds together to formulate specialized malware to attack ISIS, the United States Cyber Command ((USCYBERCOM) in Fort Meade, Maryland have created a few malware families that may be deployed to focus attacks on ISIS over the internet. While the viruses created by the US Cyber Command are not quite ready for their primetime debut to wage war against ISIS, the decision by the Pentagon hasn't been formalized as of yet either. The FBI is speaking out in opposition to using such cyberattacks against ISIS and is instead claiming that by sabotaging ISIS members over the internet and taking them offline, they will lose valuable insight and intelligence into daily operations of ISIS.
Believe it or not, but many activities of ISIS have been detected through their prominence on the internet. Putting a stop to ISIS' activities on the internet may decapitate the FBI in a way that they will no longer be able to track such activities, which are sometimes as clear as an ISIS member making a post on Twitter about future attack plans or information that gives away their location.
The FBI and US law enforcement agencies have made several arrests of ISIS-linked suspects inside US borders. Many of the arrests were a direct result of online social media activity of ISIS members that the FBI continually tracks. Fundamentally, the idea of sabotaging ISIS in a way that ends the data stream of information that the FBI gets from certain ISIS-owned online accounts would be crippling.
While the idea of implementing malware that is specifically designed to sabotage ISIS is good to have if the specific need ever arises. However, in knowing how it may lead to other issues, now may not be the time for the Pentagon to continue their push to roll out such malware. Possibly, developing specialized malware or tweaking what has already been created to target certain ISIS interties may serve a better user. In any circumstance, it is assuring that governments are taking steps and bringing masterminds together for the efforts of taking ISIS down before they can wage a new attack on innocent victims around the world.
Who would have thought that malware plays such a potentially integral role in taking the fight to terrorist groups like ISIS?