Merged Offline and Online Offensives Hit ISIS

By Ewan Lawson

Ewan Lawson is Senior Research Fellow for Military Influence at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). He was previously a Royal Air Force officer, initially as a policing and security specialist but in more recent years in a range of joint warfare appointments. His most recent experience was within Joint Forces Command with responsibility for the development of cyber warfare capabilities. Since graduating from the UK Advanced Command and Staff Course, his experience has included tours as a joint operational planner, as the commanding officer of the UK Psychological Operations Group, and the first Defence Attaché at the British Embassy in South Sudan.

ISIS propagates its ideology and promises of a jihadi utopia through slick social media campaigns, seeking to inspire a global audience to take up arms against its enemies and the societies they represent. Perhaps less visible has been ISIS’ operational use of digital communications as a command and control platform to guide fighters through battles on the ground in Iraq and Syria. Both the U.S. and UK have declared that they are seeking to use offensive cyber capabilities against such digital force multipliers leveraged by the terrorist organization, a form of remote electronic warfare. 

The Cipher Brief’s Levi Maxey spoke with Ewan Lawson, a Senior Research Fellow for Military Influence at the Royal United Services Institute in London, about what this means from a practical standpoint, and why such operations are more complicated than they appear at face value.

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