Since the start of the Gaza war last year, Israel has become the main target of Iranian cyber attacks, although Tehran had previously targeted the United States, Microsoft claimed Tuesday.

Following the commencement of the Israel-Hamas war, Iran increased its cyber, influence, and cyber-enabled influence efforts against Israel,” Microsoft stated in its annual report.

“From October 7, 2023 to July 2024, nearly half of the Iranian operations Microsoft observed targeted Israeli companies,” according to the Microsoft Digital Defense Report.

According to the US software company, between July and October 2023, just 10% of Iranian cyber attacks targeted Israel, while 35% targeted American organizations and 20% targeted the United Arab Emirates.

Since the war began, Iran has initiated many social media activities aimed at destabilising Israel.
Within two days of Hamas’ attack on Israel, Iran established multiple new influence operations,” Microsoft stated.

According to the investigation, an account dubbed “Tears of War” impersonated Israeli activists who were critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of a crisis involving scores of hostages held by Hamas.

An Iranian intelligence team developed the “KarMa” account, which purported to represent Israelis clamoring for Netanyahu’s resignation.

Following the outbreak of hostilities, Iran began impersonating partners, according to Microsoft.

Iranian services set up a Telegram account with the logo of Hamas’ military arm to spread fake information about the hostages in Gaza and threaten Israelis, Microsoft said. It was unclear whether Iran participated with Hamas’ consent, it added.

“Iranian groups also expanded their cyber-enabled influence operations beyond Israel, with a focus on undermining international political, military, and economic support for Israel’s military operations,” according to the investigation.

According to an AFP calculation of official Israeli data, the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, killed 1,206 persons, the majority of them were civilians, including hostages died in captivity.

According to the health ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza, Israel’s retaliatory military operation has killed 42,289 Palestinians, the majority of whom are civilians. The United Nations has described the numbers as trustworthy.

AFP