WASHINGTON -- An unprecedented Pentagon cyber offensive against the Islamic State has gotten off to a slow start, officials said, frustrating Pentagon leaders and threatening to undermine efforts to counter the militant group's sophisticated use of technology for recruiting, operations and propaganda.
The U.S. military's new cyberwar, which strikes across networks at the group's communications systems and other infrastructure, is the first major, publicly declared use by any nation's military of digital weapons that are more commonly associated with covert actions by intelligence services.
The debut effort is testing the ability of the military's 7-year-old U.S. Cyber Command to conduct offensive operations against an enemy that has proved to be an adept user of technology to organize operations, recruit fighters and move money.
But defense officials said the command is still working to put the right staff in place and has not yet developed a full suite of malware and other tools tailored to attack an adversary dramatically different from the nation-states U.S. Cyber Command was created to fight.
To accelerate the pace of digital operations against the Islamic State, the U.S. Cyber Command commander, Adm. Michael Rogers, created a unit in May headed by Lt. Gen. Edward Cardon that is tasked with developing digital weapons -- fashioned from malware and other cyber tools -- that can intensify efforts to damage and destroy the Islamic State's networks, computers and cellphones.
The group, called Joint Task Force Ares, is coordinating operations more closely with U.S. Central Command, which is leading the military fight, and working to sharpen offensive operations.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has pressed Rogers repeatedly to pick up the pace of the nascent cyber offensive, ensuring it plays a more active role in the overall campaign against the Islamic State.
"Cybercom has not been as effective as the department would expect them to be, and they're not as effective as they need to be," said a senior defense official who, like other officials, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations. "They need to deliver results."
Although officials declined to detail current operations, they said that cyberattacks occurring under the new task force might, for instance, disrupt a payment system, identify a communications platform used by Islamic State members and knock it out, or bring down Dabiq, the Islamic State's online magazine.
It is not, however, part of the group's mission to identify individuals to be targeted by U.S. airstrikes, officials said.
And officials hope the campaign is a significant step toward normalizing cyber as a tool of warfare, just like the use of airstrikes and artillery barrages.
The very nature of the Islamic State -- not a country or a government that would have vast institutions or infrastructure vulnerable to attack -- makes it a challenging target for cyberattacks. It is unlike more traditional foes such as Iran -- a country whose nuclear infrastructure was attacked in a joint U.S.-Israeli operation by a sophisticated piece of malware designed to infiltrate and damage the computers running an enrichment facility.
"The more dependent you are on technology, the more you are a target for cyberattack. And ISIS is less dependent," said James Lewis, a cyber-policy expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. "It doesn't mean you get no military advantage out of it. But scruffy insurgents aren't the best target for high-tech weapons."
The simple fact that the Pentagon has ordered its first major cyber-offensive campaign and has acknowledged it publicly is a milestone.
"Here you've got a real first time where you have a state saying, 'We did this -- we're using cyber on the battlefield,'" said Jason Healey, a senior research scholar in cyber conflict at Columbia University and a former military cyber operator. "Without a doubt, this is the first time we're seeing this in history."
Military cyber specialists conducted tactical operations in Iraq and, to a lesser extent, in Afghanistan toward the end of the George W. Bush administration, but the communications environment has changed significantly, officials said. The techniques used then were simpler than those being planned today, they said. "Terrorist organizations use the most modern comms," the senior defense official said. "They know that people are after them, and so they spend a lot of time protecting themselves" through the use of encryption, for example.
Carter announced a cyber strategy last year that for the first time addressed the use of cyber weapons in combat and the need to be transparent about their use. But he was unhappy with the effectiveness of the early efforts against the Islamic State, leading to the creation of the dedicated unit led by Cardon.
A Section on 07/16/2016