Rumble
Pentagon cyber-attacks took down Iranian computer networks last Thursday used to control Iran’s missile launches
US Struck Iranian
Military Computers
With an OK from the US president, the Pentagon launched cyber strikes that took down Iranian computer networks used to control missile launches, says a report in The Washington Post.
U.S. military cyber forces launched the strike against Iranian military computer systems on Thursday as President Trump backed away from plans for a more conventional military strike in response to Iran’s downing of a U.S. surveillance drone, U.S. officials said Saturday.
Two officials told The Associated Press that the strikes were conducted with approval from President Trump.
The cyberattacks — a contingency plan developed over weeks amid escalating tensions — specifically targeted and disabled Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps computer systems that controlled its rocket and missile launchers, officials said.
The IRGC, which was designated a foreign terrorist group recently and slapped with sanctions by the Trump administration, is a branch of the Iranian military.
Trump Increases
US Cyber Strategy
The action by U.S. Cyber Command was a demonstration of the U.S.’s increasingly mature cyber military capabilities and its more aggressive cyber strategy under the Trump administration.
Over the last year under the Trump Administration, U.S. officials have focused on persistently engaging with adversaries in cyberspace and undertaking more offensive operations.
