"Iranian cyber attacks are a threat to us all" - Israel cyber chief

Iran's cyber attack is an international problem, not just an Israeli problem, and therefore the solution must be international," said Gaby Portnoy, head of Israel's National Cyber ​​Directorate. Iran is a cyber threat to the entire world and continues to attack countries around the world, including Israel, three times faster than before the October 7 massacre by Hamas, the head of Israel's national cyber agency said Tuesday.

Director General of the Department Gaby Portnoy said that Iran has targeted countries such as the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates, India, Great Britain, Germany, Australia, Austria and many others.

Speaking at the annual Cyber​​​​Week conference at Tel Aviv University, Portnoy said Iran was also attacking its allies. "We found that Iran attacks its allies and other countries to extort data and compromise digital services. Data stolen from government systems is then used for Iranian cyber terrorism," he said.

Portnoy named several Iran-linked code groups, such as Albania-based Homeland Justice and Imperial Kitten, run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Since the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, Tehran has expanded cyber attacks against Israel, including "crossing humanitarian red lines, such as the thwarted attack on Ziv Hospital in Safed," Portnoy said.

"Iran's actions are a complete violation of international privacy laws and agreements, causing worldwide harm to innocent civilians," he added, calling on the global defence alliance to stop the mullahs from harming them and make Iran pay for their online disinformation activities and cyber attacks against Israel.

"As the war progressed, Iranian actors expanded their geographic reach to include attacks against Albania, Bahrain, and the United States. They also increased cooperation, allowing for greater specialization and effectiveness," the report said.

These cyberattacks have become "increasingly targeted and destructive" and so-called influence-operation campaigns "more sophisticated and inauthentic," involving social media networks "sock puppet" accounts, adding that Tehran's four-pronged approach includes expanding domestic politics and social divisions in target countries, cyber attacks against Israeli infrastructure as "retaliation" for the war on Gaza, terrorizing Israel's supporters and their families, and undermining international support for Israel.

The report also highlighted a new trend of Iranian hackers masquerading as Israelis. In March, an Iranian hacking group claimed to have hacked the Dimona nuclear facility in the Negev desert. The hackers claim to have stolen thousands of PDF documents, including invoices, email correspondence, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents and PowerPoint presentations.

Israels cyber chief further added "We have determined that Iran engages in attacks against its allies and other nations for the purpose of information extortion and disruption of digital services. The data stolen from governmental systems is subsequently utilized for Iranian cyber-terrorism," he asserted, highlighting Iran's breach of international law and the resulting threat to civilian populations.