The report, which was recently published by Microsoft, confirms once again the assumption that Tehran has been accelerating its activities in the cyber realm against Israel since the beginning of Israel’s “Swords of Iron” campaign. Thus, after a period of organization in the first weeks following the attack by Hamas, Tehran began to establish a strategy using classic cyberattacks against Israel also while promoting influence operations against the Israeli public to achieve several goals. These goals include frightening the Israeli public, creating a sense of chaos by creating a rift between the population and the government, and weakening the social cohesion, all with the aim of weakening Israel’s will to continue fighting.
Microsoft’s report also emphasizes the existing cooperation between Iran and Hezbollah in the cyber field. The report reveals that the challenge posed by Iran in this field is not limited to Israel alone; other countries as well, such as Bahrain and the United States, have also suffered from cyberattacks in recent months, due to their support of Israel. In addition, the report indicates that for the first time, Iran’s activity relied on the use of AI tools to increase the fake news that it spreads through the various tools at its disposal. Furthermore, the report also reveals how Iran combines its offensive cyber operations with the influence operations it leads vis-à-vis the Israeli public in order to increase awareness and to echo the achievements of its cyber operations, even if they have failed miserably.
In general, Iran’s preferred arena is cyber. Given the deep fear among the Iranian leadership of a direct confrontation with Israel, Iran prefers to influence Israel indirectly, either by working with Iran’s proxies throughout the Middle East, or in the cyber realm, given the Iranian assumption that this activity cannot be attributed to Tehran (due to the unique characteristics of this dimension); therefore, Iran does not risk any direct reaction from this activity.
From Iran’s perspective, these moves allow it to advance toward achieving its goals in combat without paying a real price for it. This report estimates that Iran will only continue these actions and intensify them if it assumes that it can continue without any interference, including in the run-up to the November 2024 US presidential elections.
The report, which was recently published by Microsoft, confirms once again the assumption that Tehran has been accelerating its activities in the cyber realm against Israel since the beginning of Israel’s “Swords of Iron” campaign. Thus, after a period of organization in the first weeks following the attack by Hamas, Tehran began to establish a strategy using classic cyberattacks against Israel also while promoting influence operations against the Israeli public to achieve several goals. These goals include frightening the Israeli public, creating a sense of chaos by creating a rift between the population and the government, and weakening the social cohesion, all with the aim of weakening Israel’s will to continue fighting.
Microsoft’s report also emphasizes the existing cooperation between Iran and Hezbollah in the cyber field. The report reveals that the challenge posed by Iran in this field is not limited to Israel alone; other countries as well, such as Bahrain and the United States, have also suffered from cyberattacks in recent months, due to their support of Israel. In addition, the report indicates that for the first time, Iran’s activity relied on the use of AI tools to increase the fake news that it spreads through the various tools at its disposal. Furthermore, the report also reveals how Iran combines its offensive cyber operations with the influence operations it leads vis-à-vis the Israeli public in order to increase awareness and to echo the achievements of its cyber operations, even if they have failed miserably.
In general, Iran’s preferred arena is cyber. Given the deep fear among the Iranian leadership of a direct confrontation with Israel, Iran prefers to influence Israel indirectly, either by working with Iran’s proxies throughout the Middle East, or in the cyber realm, given the Iranian assumption that this activity cannot be attributed to Tehran (due to the unique characteristics of this dimension); therefore, Iran does not risk any direct reaction from this activity.
From Iran’s perspective, these moves allow it to advance toward achieving its goals in combat without paying a real price for it. This report estimates that Iran will only continue these actions and intensify them if it assumes that it can continue without any interference, including in the run-up to the November 2024 US presidential elections.