Ahead of Iran's "Jerusalem Day" or Quds Day, that will be celebrated this coming Friday, the National Cyber Organization warned of an expected increase in attempted cyber attacks. It further stated that due to the war in Gaza and hostile online discourse calling for organized cyber attacks against Israel, the threat will only grow worse.
"Preparations for cyber attacks under the hashtags #OpJerusalem, planned for April 5, and #OpIsrael, planned for April 7 call on activists from around the world to attack Israel" said the cyber organization. "We anticipate that, like every year during this period of time, there may be an uptick in attacks, mainly website defacement, attacking systems such as smart homes, and spreading false information."
Quds Day was instituted following the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and takes place every year on the last Friday of Ramadan. It is characterized by demonstrations throughout Iran and the Palestinian Authority as well as anti-Israeli activity in cyberspace.
Every year during this time period, attacks are identified, often less sophisticated and of the type that is easier to carry out on a wide scale, such as defacing websites, taking over smart home systems, distributing phishing messages, hacking into social networks, infiltrating company databases and information leaks, as well as publications boasting of attacks which did not necessarily occur.
It was also reported that "from the National Cyber System's familiarization with the attack groups active on Quds Day, they will be attempting to gain access to website management interfaces, cameras, control systems, and identification data on organizational pages exposed to the Internet, remote connections. They will also attempt to take advantage of weaknesses in web pages, free external libraries, and other targets.
The organization also published recommendations for companies to strengthen their cyber defense, which emphasize Denial of Service attacks for website owners, warning against attackers' use of common weaknesses. Organizations are also urged to implement relevant security updates in the near future.
Selected recommendations have been provided to the public, which called, among other things, to check links and unidentified files in messages and download applications only from official online stores.
"Do not provide personal information such as passwords, codes, or account details. In the event of browsing a corrupted website, do not click on any links and close the browser as soon as possible" warned the National Cyber Defense System. The public is also urged to adhere to strong passwords for each account, implement two-step verifications, and perform regular software updates for all devices and applications.