On Saturday, US and Israeli warplanes launched a bombing campaign against Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and several senior government officials. The attacks also targeted military personnel and civilians across the country, including girls' schools, leaving at least 168 children and adults dead.
After several days of conflict, multiple reports and statements from government officials suggest that cyber operations played a significant role in the early stages of the war. This shows that hacking can now become a key element in real-world conflicts and wars, supporting kinetic attacks and providing information from surveillance operations, as well as potentially being used as part of psychological and psychological operations.
The most direct confirmation that cyber operations were involved in the war came from Gen. Dan Cain, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, who said that prior to the attack, “coordinated space and cyber operations effectively disrupted communications and sensor networks” in Iran, “depriving the adversary of the ability to see, coordinate, and respond effectively.”
The aim is to “confuse, confuse and confuse the enemy,” Cain said at a news conference.
In another example of a coordinated kinetic cyber operation, Israel first bombed the offices of the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) Channel 2.
The Israel Defense Forces then took over the airwaves and broadcast speeches by Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging Iranians to join the anti-regime struggle, according to the Jerusalem Post. A similar hack of one of its channels occurred in January.
According to the Financial Times, Israeli spies reportedly used information from hacked traffic cameras across Tehran as part of the plot to kill Ayatollah Khamenei. Citing two anonymous sources, the newspaper reported that Israel had access to the camera network for years, as well as a “deeply penetrated mobile phone network.”
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There have also been reports of unexplained cyber attacks that appear to be the work of hackers from the US or Israeli governments.
According to multiple reports, on the first day of the war, hackers broke into a popular Iranian prayer app called “BadeSaba Calendar” and sent several messages to all users.
“For the freedom of our Iranian brothers and sisters, this is a call to all forces of oppression: lay down your arms or join the forces of liberation,” one of the messages reads. “Only in this way can lives be saved. For a free Iran.”
These messages revealed that this was a psychological operation aimed at influencing those believed to be more pro-regime than the rest of the population.
According to Bloomberg, Iranian hackers are largely powerless against these operations, at least for now.
It is important to note that while these operations were likely real, they may not have played a very significant role in the conflict, which is not surprising given that war is about dropping bombs. Authorities themselves may also be inclined to exaggerate the effectiveness of cyber operations as a way to intimidate and frighten adversaries.
Earlier this year, it appeared to be the same in Venezuela, where U.S. officials, including President Trump himself, suggested that U.S. hackers caused a power outage in Caracas during an operation to kidnap President Nicolas Maduro. However, as Cyberscoop's analysis suggested, it is far more likely that cyber activity played a minor role, and that the partial power outage was rather caused by fighter jets destroying electrical substations.