Nikita Shah
The recent war between Iran and Israel will be remembered for what the world witnessed—from the direct, large-scale military strikes by both countries (and the United States), to a major shift in regional power dynamics, to the substantial damage done to the Iranian nuclear program, with still-unknown consequences.
But it should also be remembered for what it did not witness: While the conflict featured apparent cyber activities that ranged from low-level hacktivism to attacks on financial institutions, the impact of these activities were markedly limited. This is notable given speculation early in the conflict about how cyber would feature in the fight, and the fact that Iran and Israel both possess considerable prowess in the cyber domain.
Cyber activities have become a permanent feature of contemporary conflict, though their shape, form, and impact is ill-understood. As the below four examples from the Israel-Iran conflict demonstrate, such activities appear to offer an incremental edge in warfare, rather than a revolutionary one.On both sides, the Israel-Iran war produced a clear burst of hacktivism, or cyber attacks by politically motivated actors to further social or political objectives.
Estimates range from at least thirty-five distinct pro-Iran groups joining the conflict, to more than one hundred different hacktivist groups declaring themselves involved. Attacks included the hacking of Iranian state television to display footage of anti-regime protests and calls for a public uprising against the Iranian regime. Meanwhile, 40 percent of all distributed denial-of-service attacks conducted during the conflict were directed at Israel.
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