The US Military has officially confirmed that it has begun systematic cyber attacks against the so-called/self-proclaimed Islamic State (ISIS) in Mosul.
Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter and General Joseph F. Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, answer questions.
This is significant for several reasons, the biggest being that while the US almost certainly engages in cyber attacks against its enemies it almost never admits to it.
While officially not affiliated in any way, this revelation now means that ISIS is under cyber attack from both the US Military and the hacking collective known as Anonymous.
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Anonymous was quick off the mark to set its sights on ISIS after the Paris attacks, threatening to taken down their websites, communication infrastructure and social media presence.
It's not clear what form the US Military's attacks will take but Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford confirmed that the plan was to encircle the last major stronghold with a substantial air and cyber attack that would cut the city off from the outside world.
Although believed to be involved in several cyber attacks the Pentagon very rarely admits to any attacks of that nature.
Anonymous and the US Military aren't the only ones to step up their assault on ISIS' online presence. After hackers declared that Twitter was being 'too slow' in tackling the number of extremist accounts the social site revealed that it was launching a crushing attack on possible accounts and by last February had actually shut down over 125,000 ISIS-linked accounts.