On Saturday, US and Israeli jets launched a bombing campaign against Iran, killing its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several senior government officials. The attacks also hit military and civilian targets across the country, including a girls’ schoolwhere at least 168 children and adults were killed.
After a few days of conflict, multiple reports, as well as statements from government officials, suggest that cyber operations played a significant role in the beginning of the war. This shows that in the current era, hacking can be an important component of real-world conflict and warfare, supporting kinetic strikes, providing information from surveillance activities, as well as being used as part of psychological operations or psychopathy.
The most immediate confirmation of a cyber operation playing a role in the war came from US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Kane, who said “coordinated space and cyber operations effectively disrupted communications and sensor networks” in Iran before the attack, “leaving the adversary without the ability to see, coordinate or respond effectively”.
The goal, Kane he said at a press conferencewas to “disrupt, disorient and confuse the enemy”.
In another example of a coordinated kinetic cyber operation, Israel first bombed the offices of two state-run Islamic Republic of Iran (IRIB) channels.
The Israel Defense Forces then intercepted the broadcast of speeches by Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging Iranians to join the fight against the regime. according to the Jerusalem Post. A similar hack on one of the channels it happened in january.
As part of the operation to kill Khamenei, Israeli spies allegedly used information from hacked traffic cameras in Tehran, according to the Financial Times. Citing two unnamed sources, the paper said Israel had access to the camera network for years, as well as “deep penetration of mobile phone networks”.
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There have also been reported cases of unattributed cyberattacks that appear to be the work of either American or Israeli government hackers.
According to multiple exhibitionson the first day of the war, hackers breached a popular Iranian prayer app called BadeSaba Calendar, sending a handful of messages to all users.
“For the freedom of our Iranian brothers and sisters, this is a call to all oppressive forces — lay down your arms or join the forces of liberation,” one message read. “That’s the only way you can save your life. For a free Iran”.
These messages made it clear that this was a psychological operation aimed at influencing those who might be more pro-regime than the rest of the population.
In response to these operations, at least for now, Iranian hackers have been largely ineffective, according to Bloomberg.
It is important to note that while these operations may be very real, they also may not have played such a significant role in the conflict, which makes sense given that war is about dropping bombs. There may also be a tendency by authorities themselves to exaggerate the impact of cyber operations as a way to intimidate and frighten the enemy.
This appears to have been the case in Venezuela earlier this year, where US officials, including Trump himself, is suggested American hackers caused a blackout in Caracas during the operation to kidnap President Nicolas Maduro. But, as a Cyberscoop analysis suggestedit is much more likely that cyber activities played a minor role, and it is much more likely that some blackouts were caused by fighter jets destroying electrical substations.
