ISIS militants have picked up a few vital spycraft techniques from a trove of classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden that are helping them stay one step ahead of Western intelligence, according to US officials.

The New York Times reported that the tech-savvy extremist group that has cut a bloody swath across the Middle East has gleaned important information from the Snowden files on how the US and its allies gather intelligence on militants.

In order to minimize the risk of detection and capture, ISIS commanders now use human couriers or encrypted channels of communications that analysts working for Western intelligence services have been unable to access, unnamed military and intelligence officials revealed to the paper.

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Special helper: US military and intelligence officials say ISIS commanders have learned how Western intelligence services gather information about militants from secret files leaked by Edward Snowden

Burgeoning caliphate: Despite efforts being made by a US-led coalition to eradicate ISIS, the radical Islamist organization currently controls large portions of Syria and Iraq

Snowden, the rogue NSA contractor who remains in Moscow living in temporary asylum, faces felony charges in the US after revealing the agency's mass surveillance program by leaking up to 1.7million classified documents to British and American media outlets in 2013.

Speaking at the South By Southwest Interactive Festival via live video conference back in March 2014, Snowden appeared to have no regrets about exposing the US government's surveillance methods.

‘I took an oath to support the Constitution, and I felt the Constitution was violated on a massive scale,’ he told the audience.

The US administration has branded him a hacker and a traitor who endangered lives by revealing the extent of the NSA spying program.

ISIS has been responsible for beheading Western aid workers and journalists, and brutally cracking down on moderate Muslims wherever they go

Delegator-in-chief: ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has established a cabinet staffed with ministers to help him run his ever expanding empire more smoothly

Despite efforts being made by a US-led coalition to eradicate ISIS, the radical Islamist organization, responsible for beheading Western journalists and aid workers, currently controls large portions of Syria and Iraq.

And according to documents seized by US forces during a recent raid in Syria, the ISIS leadership’s approach towards administration has been rapidly evolving.

The Times reported Monday that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has established a cabinet, or shura, staffed with ministers of finance, war and religious affairs, to help him run his ever expanding dominion more smoothly.