Friday, June 13, 2025

"Cyber weapons in the Israel-Iran conflict may hit the US"

From The Register, June 13:

With Tehran’s military weakened, digital retaliation likely, experts tell The Reg 

The current Israel–Iran military conflict is taking place in the era of hybrid war, where cyberattacks amplify and assist missiles and troops, and is being waged between two countries with very capable destructive cyber weapons.

Iran is widely expected to retaliate against Israel's missile strikes with cyber operations — and these could extend to American targets, according to cyber warfare experts and threat analysts.

"I would expect there to be a cyber component of both the Israeli and Iranian activities," former White House advisor Michael Daniel told The Register

Daniel, who now leads the threat-intel sharing nonprofit Cyber Threat Alliance, said both countries "have the capability to conduct a range of activities, from fully reversible DDoS [distributed denial-of-service] attacks, which could disrupt online services temporarily, to destructive wiper attacks. At the very least, I am sure both sides are using cyber capabilities to conduct espionage and reconnaissance."  

While cyber espionage began well before Israel's June 13 strikes on Iran's nuclear sites and military commanders, the worry is that Iran may launch destructive cyberattacks now that its military capabilities have been dealt a serious blow.

"Iranian cyber activity has not been as extensive outside of the Middle East but could shift in light of the military actions," Google threat intelligence group chief analyst John Hultquist said in an email sent to The Register. "Iranian cyber espionage activity already targets the US government, military, and political [sector], but new activity may threaten privately owned critical infrastructure, or even private individuals."....

....MUCH MORE