Iranian pirates keep a low profile after the Israeli and American strikes

After the Israeli and American forces struck Iranian nuclear targets, those responsible for the two countries sounded the alarm of the potentially disturbing cyberattacks produced by the pirates of the Islamic Republic.

But as a fragile ceasefire, cyber-defensers in the United States and Israel say that they have so far seen little from the ordinary-a potential sign that the threat of cyber capacities of Iran, as its beaten soldier, was overestimated.

There was no indication of the disruptive cyber attacks often invoked during discussions on Iran’s digital capacities, such as its alleged sabotage of tens of thousands of computers in the main Saudi Aramco oil companies in 2012, or subsequent break -in in American casinos or American water installations.

“The volume of attacks seems to be relatively low,” said Nicole Fishbein, principal researcher in the security of the Israeli company Intezer. “The techniques used are not particularly sophisticated.”

Online justification groups alleged by security analysts to act in the direction of Iran have boasted of hacking a series of Israeli and Western companies following air strikes.

A group called Handala Hack claimed a series of data cellars and intrusions, but Reuters was unable to corroborate its most recent hacking claims. The researchers say that the group, which emerged in the wake of the attack on the Palestinian militant group of Hamas, on October 7, 2023, against Israel, probably operates from the Iranian Intelligence Ministry.

Rafe Pilling, intelligence researcher on the threats of the British Cybersecurity Company Sophos, said that the impact of the hacking activity seemed to be modest.

“As far as we can say, it is the usual mixture of ineffective chaos of the real hacktivist groups and targeted attacks of the characters linked to Iran which probably have some success but which also overestimates their impact,” he said.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York has not responded to a comment request. Iran generally denies leaving hacking campaigns.

Israeli company control software said that a hacking campaign It is linked to the Iranian revolution guards in recent days have sent phishing messages to Israeli journalists, university officials and others.

In one case, the pirates tried to attract a target to a physical meeting in Tel Aviv, according to Sergey Shykevich, director of the check point intelligence group. He added that the reasoning behind the proposed meeting was not clear.

Shykevich said there had been attempts to destroy data on Israeli targets, which he refused to identify, as well as a spectacular increase in attempts to exploit a vulnerability in Chinese manufacturing security cameras – likely to assess the bomb damage in Israel.

Pro-Iranian cyber operations demonstrate asymmetry with pro-Israeli cyber-operations linked to the air war that started on June 13.

Since the start of the conflict, alleged Israeli pirates have claimed to have destroyed data in one of the main Iranian public banks. They also burned around $ 90 million in cryptocurrencies, which, according to pirates, were linked to government security services.

The national cyber-directorate of Israel did not send a message asking for comments.

Analysts said that the situation is fluid and that the more sophisticated cyber-spying activity can be stolen under the radar.

Israeli and American officials have urged the industry to be on the lookout. A bulletin of the Department of Internal Security of June 22 warned that the current conflict caused an increased threat environment in the United States and that cyber-actors affiliated to the Iranian government can carry out attacks on American networks.

The FBI refused to comment on potential Iranian cyber activity in the United States.

Yeliey Bohuslavskiy, the co-founder of the intelligence company Red Sense, compared the Iranian cyber operations to its missile program. The Iranian weapons that cried on Israel during the conflict killed 28 people and destroyed thousands of houses, but most were intercepted and none significantly damaged the Israeli army.

Bohuslavskiy said Iranian hacking operations seemed to work in the same way.

“There is a lot of hot air, there is a lot of blind civil targeting, and – realistically – there are not many results,” he said.