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In April 2020 hackers broke into the systems of an Israeli water pumping station and tampered with the equipment. Individual pumps began to malfunction as employees struggled to maintain water supplies for millions of people. Following the Iran-related incident, authorities said the damage could be much greater: they suspect the attack was aimed at poisoning water supplies by raising chlorine levels. Weeks later, hackers targeted an Iranian port in an apparent act of revenge.
“This was the first time a nation responded immediately through the cyber environment to a cyber attack,” said Lottem Finkelstein, director of intelligence and threat research at the Israeli cybersecurity company Check Point. The attacks, he said, marked the beginning of a new wave of hacking against infrastructure in the region, which has disrupted the lives of millions.
In the last few months, these strikes have escalated. Iran’s fuel supply, railway control and airline systems are facing attacks. At the same time, hackers released the personal information of one million users of Israeli LGBTQ dating apps and revealed some details about the Israeli army. The clashes, which include physical sabotage and destruction of equipment, are the latest in decades of military action between Iran and Israel. Now they are spilling over into shady acts of digital espionage and interference.
The attacks are of concern to experts, who say the infrastructure that underpins much of everyday life should be banned by state-sponsored hackers. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has identified 16 key sectors – including energy, healthcare, dams and food – that it says should be out of reach of state-sponsored hackers. The attacks also came when Iran resumed nuclear weapons talks with the world’s superpowers.
“This seems to be the case for various actors trying to demonstrate their abilities to establish a fundamentally new balance of power in the region,” said Esfandiar Batmangelidge, a visiting associate at the European Council on Foreign Relations’ think tank, who adds that there has been more diplomacy between Middle Eastern countries in recent months.
High-profile hacks on Iranian infrastructure have been widespread in their purposes and are attributed to both state-sponsored actors and independent hacker groups. But they have one thing in common: they have caused chaos and confusion for ordinary people and businesses in the country.
On July 9 and 10 this year, hackers disrupted Iranian train services and posted fake notices delaying digital billboards. “Long delay due to cyberattacks. More information: 64411 “, read a message shown on the signs at the railway stations. The phone number is linked to the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The railway attacks, according to an analysis by Check Point, which was later confirmed by New York-based threat intelligence company Intezer, were linked to a group of hackers named Indra, named after the Hindu god of war. The group has also carried out attacks in Syria and is “unlikely” to be linked to a country, the analysis said. Check Point says the little-known group appears to be “focused” on targeting entities that “cooperate with the Iranian regime” and that it also attacked a currency exchange and a private airline based in Syria and threatened to attack a Syrian oil refinery in 2019 and 2020
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