Tensions escalate between Israel and Iran as both sides experience hacking attacks, whilst Tehran blames Israeli Mossad for killing two Iranians with a roadside bomb in Damascus.
Last Wednesday a twin-bomb attack was carried out in occupied Jerusalem, killing one Israeli and injuring at least 14 others. The attack brought back memories of the early 2000s for many Israelis, who experienced bombings during what was known as the Second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, during which around 3,500 Palestinians were killed as a result of Israeli aggression. Until now, it was unclear who was responsible for the planning and detonation of the explosive devises, with the Israeli police reporting that due to CCTV cameras being non-operational at the time of the explosions, they had been left without leads.
The following day, an Iranian hacker group, calling itself ‘Moses Staff’, then released CCTV footage that revealed one of the explosions and its aftermath. It has been alleged, by the Israeli authorities, that the Iranian hackers had obtained access to the footage through gaining access to CCTV archives, it has also been reported that the hackers deleted footage from the camera’s archive, which may have revealed who planted the explosives.
In what appeared to be an act of retaliation, Israeli hackers then targeted Iranian media. The website belonging to Fars News, in Iran, was hit by a “complex hacking and cyberattack operation“, one that it immediately blamed on Israel and which prevented the website from functioning. Similar cyberattacks on media websites have also taken place in the past, against Israeli media websites and twitter accounts. Hackers also managed to down Tel Aviv’s municipality website earlier this year, in addition to targeting the Israel Airport Authority (IAA) with a DDoS attack.
Meanwhile, also on Wednesday, Iranian State-media reported that an Israeli Mossad operation had resulted in the murder of two Iranians in the Syrian capital Damascus, one of those killed was identified as a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). “Col Davoud Jafari, one of Iran’s military advisers in Syria and a member of the Guards’ aerospace arm, was killed with a makeshift bomb planted by the roadside,” reported Tasnim news. What followed was a threat of retaliation by Iran.
Earlier this year, in March the IRGC announced that it had fired ballistic missiles into Mossad targets that were located in Northern Iraq’s Erbil and claimed to have killed a number of Israeli operatives. These strikes came as a response to Israeli airstrikes that had killed two IRGC members in Syria. Although this development did not make international headlines, it marked a turning point in the Iran-Israel cold war, making it clear the the IRGC was now prepared to turn up the heat on Tel Aviv and strike targets of value to it. Prior to this, most of the tit-for-tat attacks between either side had been isolated to the seas, something that is clearly ongoing today. In the past month an Iranian drone was revealed to have struck an oil-tanker linked to a prominent Israeli billionaire.
The strikes on Iraq earlier this year perhaps indicate that Tehran is now eyeing a similar kind of response to the killing of yet another IRGC officer in Syria. Despite its rhetoric, Iran has refrained from actually striking Israel directly, still refusing to respond to the Israeli assassination of an IRGC officer and the Islamic Republic’s top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, in separate incidents that took place in Tehran. These two Israeli attacks were carried out on Iranian soil, yet Tehran has remained silent and refrains from directly targeting Israel. However, as Israel is now accused of directly attempting to cause a Syria-style civil war inside Iran and with Tel Aviv preparing for war, the status quo of never directly striking Israel may change. The nature of the IRGC’s responses will depend upon how severe the Israeli attacks are, with recent tame and conservative Iranian reactions possibly encouraging bolder aggression from Tel Aviv.
Earlier this year, Iranian hackers released information they obtained on around 300,000 Israelis, as well as sensitive content retrieved through cyberattacks that managed to penetrate the phones of former Mossad officials. The US and Israel now fear that Iran’s hacking capabilities may allow for it to take control over Tel Aviv and Washington’s high-tech drones, stoking fears of sensitive information leaks.
ClearSky cybersecurity CEO, Boaz Dolev, spoke at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS)’s conference on 21 November, raising concerns about Iranian cyberattacks developing to the point of shutting down Israeli infrastructure, using a ‘zero-day’ exploit. He also admitted that Israel has itself carried out significant cyber-warfare operations against Iran, without giving any specific details. It was also alleged that such hacking technology is now being passed on to Iranian allies in Lebanon and possibly Gaza. All of the above can only be taken at face value, yet speaks to the degree of seriousness with which the cyber-warfare is treated by Israeli officials. Earlier this year, Khuzestan Steal Co. along with two other companies, suffered a significant Israeli cyber attack, causing great damage to the companies, a move which only served to provide more incentive for Iran to retaliate to the non-stop Israeli aggression.
Since the assassination of Iran’s top General, Qassem Soleimani, in 2020 with Israeli help, both Tel Aviv and Tehran have seen tensions dramatically escalate on a number of fronts. What the recent cyberattacks have demonstrated, is that neither side plans to stop and that both are attempting to reach high value targets — both achieving this in one way or another.
