Anti-ISIS cyber op struggled with issue of notifying allies

A U.S. military operation to defeat ISIS propaganda last year hit an odd hiccup, reports the Washington Post: What do we do about our allies?  

According to the Post, Operation Glowing Symphony, which officials tout as a success, obtained login credentials for the administrator accounts at online hosting sites and used them to disrupt ISIS information campaigns. They deleted files including battlefield video, changed passwords and blocked ISIS propagandists from accessing their accounts. 

But those online hosting sites were scattered around 35 countries, many of which were U.S. allies. 

{mosads}In a series of Situation Room meetings, reports the Post, Obama administration officials debated whether the country should notify the nations where the hosting services were located.

Then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-Secretary of State John Kerry, FBI Director James Comey and then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper believed that running the operation without telling nations risked damaging relationships, especially with allies. Then-Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford and NSA Director Michael Rogers, who also leads Cyber Command, argued that notifying countries created its own risks — that information about the operation would leak and thwart their efforts. 

In the end, 15 nations were notified, with action taken in around a third. 

Though ISIS propaganda declined late last year, private researchers question whether that was more a result of the United States’ and its allies’ increasing success on the battlefield.

“In the last year, ISIS has suffered heavy casualties among its media emirs, video narrators, cameramen, and others associated with propaganda production,”  Flashpoint chief innovation officer Evan Kohlmann told the Post.

“Even absent any specific cyber campaign targeting them, one would naturally expect them to be producing and releasing less content.”