ISIS crippled by Brit spooks with massive cyber attack to halt terror attack plots and wipe sick execution videos online
BRITISH spooks crippled Islamic State's operation by waging a huge online attack against the terror group, the head of spy agency GCHQ has revealed.
The UK intelligence agency co-ordinated attacks which made it "almost impossible" for Islamic State to "spread their hate online" last year.
In a wide-ranging speech GCHQ boss Jeremy Fleming - who joined the agency from MI5 last year - also warned Russia had been "reckless" in deploying a nerve agent to poison Russian MI6 agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, Wilts., last month.
He accused Russia of "unacceptable" cyber behaviour and said the country was "blurring the boundaries between criminal and state activity".
Mr Fleming noted that the expanded terror threat - which saw attacks in Manchester and London last year - had brought a sharper focus to GCHQ's work against IS.
Speaking this morning at a cyber security conference in Manchester, he said: "Much of this is too sensitive to talk about in detail, but I can tell you that GCHQ, in partnership with the Ministry of Defence, has conducted a major offensive cyber campaign against Daesh (Islamic State).
"These operations have made a significant contribution to coalition efforts to suppress Daesh propaganda, hindered their ability to coordinate attacks, and protected coalition forces on the battlefield.
"This is the first time the UK has systematically and persistently degraded an adversary’s online efforts as part of a wider military campaign.
"Did it work? I think it did. The outcomes of these operations are wide ranging.
"In 2017 there were times when Daesh found it almost impossible to spread their hate online, to use their normal channels to spread their rhetoric, or trust their publications."
Last year experts had recorded a significant drop in IS's online activity which had previously seen a glut of slick videos and media content aimed at inspiring attacks across the globe.
Charlie Winter, terror expert and senior research fellow the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, King's College, London, said in 2015 the group was spewing out more than 200 videos, radio programmes, magazines and photos each week but that trickled to "barely 20" in 2017.
GCHQ boss Fleming also warned of growing threats from Russia's offensive cyber campaigns, chemical weapons attacks in Salisbury and separately in Syria as well as the threat of Iran.
He said: "For decades, we have collected intelligence on Russian state capabilities, on their intent and posture.
"This has never gone away. But nevertheless, recent events are particularly stark and shocking.
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"You’ve heard it said, and I’ll repeat, the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, was the first time a nerve agent had been deployed in Europe since the Second World War.
"That’s sobering. It demonstrates how reckless Russia is prepared to be.
"How little the Kremlin cares for the international rules-based order. How comfortable they are at putting ordinary lives at risk.”
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