Britain’s military and security services tested a new arsenal of offensive cyberweapons against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, The Times can reveal.
GCHQ, the government’s listening post, and British armed forces personnel pioneered the use of fresh cyber-capabilities to spread malware to block jihadists’ access to data, according to interviews with present and former intelligence officers.
The operation also involved the dissemination of fake news to sow confusion among Islamic State’s supporters and techniques to disrupt the terrorists’ cash transactions. Measures that interfered with the group’s funding and logistics made it harder for it to pay its militants and buy weapons, ammunition, food and supplies.
The slick and well-produced propaganda of the terrorist group, which extended from hostage videos of beheadings to 40-page monthly