The
hacking of Twitter and YouTube accounts of the U.S. Central Intelligence Command by apparent Islamic State (ISIS) sympathizers is evidence that cyber warfare is the new battlefield, says House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry.
"This is a flexible adaptable enemy that is looking for weak spots and they are looking to instill fear into our military, into our society in general," the Texas Republican said Monday on CNN's
"The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer."
It also points to an ideological struggle, Thornberry said, that so far only Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi has pushed back on. El-Sisi
admonished his country's imams in a New Year's Day speech to take a stand against extremism in Islam.
"Finally," Thornberry said, "it tells us that cyber is the new domain of warfare."
The hacking of Sony Pictures was blamed by the U.S. government on North Korea. That and the CENTCOM account hackings show "we are going to have to deal with cyber as a domain," Thornberry said.
The hackers were not able to hack into CENTCOM's actual systems, but did use the Twitter account to post personal information about members of the military that is publicly available.
The intent was to instill fear in military members that they and their families are in danger.
"They are trying to attack our society so seeds of dissension and fear," Thornberry said.
"And bombings, assassinations, social media are all part of the tools they use to attack us."
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