A malware campaign discovered by researchers for Kaspersky Lab this month was in fact a US military operation, according to a report by CyberScoop’s Chris Bing and Patrick Howell O’Neill. Unnamed US intelligence officials told CyberScoop that Kaspersky’s report had exposed a long-running Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) operation targeting the Islamic State and Al Qaeda.
The setup:
The malware used in the campaign, according to the officials, was used to target computers in Internet cafés where it was believed individuals associated with the Islamic State and Al Qaeda would communicate with their organizations’ leadership.
The punchline:
The publication of the report, the officials contended, likely caused JSOC to abandon the operation and may have put the lives of soldiers fighting ISIS and Al Qaeda in danger.
How, exactly, does the lack of cybercafe spyware put a soldier’s life in danger? Was the spyware reaching out from that rental computer in Sudan to remotely disarm IEDs?
Or is that a stock line that ‘US intelligence officials” use whenever they’re vaguely disappointed by anything?
Ray of Infamy 
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