On cyberattacks – Amos Harel in Haaretz
‘The cyberwar between Israel and Iran seems to have moved up a notch. This week Iran reported a massive cyberattack that hit its steel industry hard, an incursion preceded by Tehran’s repeated attempts to harm Israeli infrastructure through similar attacks.
As far as is known, some of the Iranian attacks have caused more damage than those in the past. In one case reported in the media, hackers set off the sirens that warn about rocket attacks.’
(…)
‘Bennett has been talking a lot recently about the need to change the balance of deterrence with Iran, including actions against the regime in areas unrelated to the nuclear program. He says Israel must also deter Iran by targeting senior officials who plan terror attacks and arm organizations such as Hezbollah. When necessary, there will be cyberattacks.
Bennett also conducted situation assessments Tuesday and paid farewell visits to the headquarters of the Mossad and the Shin Bet security service, ahead of the transfer of power to the incoming caretaker prime minister, Yair Lapid. Bennett said that even though Israel’s politics were unstable, its defense strategy was clear: initiative, deterrence and the further building of its strength.’
(…)
‘Steel is a major Iranian industry, and the shutdown may last for weeks. A hacker group took responsibility, the same group that took responsibility for the hacking of gas stations across Iran – which Iran attributed to Israel.
Gaby Portnoy, the head of the Israel National Cyber Directorate, said Tuesday that Iran has become a key player in cyberspace, along with Hamas and Hezbollah. He said the directorate had thwarted about 1,500 cyberattacks in the past year.
According to Portnoy, Israel’s opponents in this field now include hackers working for states, crime organizations and private individuals. Israel needs an Iron Dome for cyberdefense, he said, referring to the missile defense system.
Iranian cyberattacks are another dimension of the tensions between Israel and Iran; in April and May, Iran made several attempts to strike Israeli tourists abroad. At the end of May, Hassan Khodaei, a colonel in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, was assassinated in Tehran; the killers fled. Iran attributed the assassination to Israel and ramped up its attempts to hit Israeli tourists in Turkey.’
Read the article here.
A couple of weeks ago the NYT was asking why Putin hasn’t started a cyber war against the West? Good question. I assume, because there is a secret understanding between Russia and the US and maybe also some other countries about certain lines that cannot be crossed.
Without these secret or not so secret understandings the war would be incomprehensible.
The war in Ukraine makes it attractive not to say necessary for the US and its allies to have an agreement with Iran, so it can buy Iranian oil and gas instead of Russian oil and gas.
Iran and Saudi-Arabia, two states that are benefitting from the war that Putin started. Turkey is another obvious winner.
It’s unclear if the Ayatollahs in Teheran are preferable to the Russian Ayatollah Putin. From a moral and even practical perspective.
Alas, the public opinion can only handle one evil leader a time. In two or three or four years we will focus on the Middle-East again, maybe also on China.
Putin might at that time still be the owner, the capo di tutti capi of Russia, but his evilness will be largely forgotten.