There was a certain irony to the news that @CENTCOM had been hacked yesterday afternoon. While President Obama was giving a speech on cybersecurity, the U.S. Central Command Twitter account was spouting pro-Isis propaganda.
Nothing new here, though. Since day one, Isis have used the internet to threaten the West and in particular American soldiers. During a few days in August last year, my research group tracked eighty thousand tweets sent using the hashtag #AMessageFromISIStoUS from Isis sympathisers. Many of them contained grisly threats: images of US casualties and coffins with warnings not to interfere in the affairs of the Caliphate.
Cyber-jihad is a natural evolution of terrorism. Islamic State seem to have caught the world unawares by their use of the internet. They have built apps to circulate their message. Their videos capture the Hollywood of Jihad in high definition. Propaganda has been thrust into the faces of a Western audience, while they are sat at home, safely browsing social media.
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