Israel and Iran Broaden Cyberwar To Attack Civilian Targets (nytimes.com) 31
Iranians couldn't buy gas. Israelis found their intimate dating details posted online. The Iran-Israel shadow war is now hitting ordinary citizens. From a report: Millions of ordinary people in Iran and Israel recently found themselves caught in the crossfire of a cyberwar between their countries. In Tehran, a dentist drove around for hours in search of gasoline, waiting in long lines at four gas stations only to come away empty. In Tel Aviv, a well-known broadcaster panicked as the intimate details of his sex life, and those of hundreds of thousands of others stolen from an L.G.B.T.Q. dating site, were uploaded on social media. For years, Israel and Iran have engaged in a covert war, by land, sea, air and computer, but the targets have usually been military or government related. Now, the cyberwar has widened to target civilians on a large scale. In recent weeks, a cyberattack on Iran's nationwide fuel distribution system paralyzed the country's 4,300 gas stations, which took 12 days to have service fully restored.
That attack was attributed to Israel by two U.S. defense officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential intelligence assessments. It was followed days later by cyberattacks in Israel against a major medical facility and a popular L.G.B.T.Q. dating site, attacks Israeli officials have attributed to Iran. The escalation comes as American authorities have warned of Iranian attempts to hack the computer networks of hospitals and other critical infrastructure in the United States. As hopes fade for a diplomatic resurrection of the Iranian nuclear agreement, such attacks are only likely to proliferate. Hacks have been seeping into civilian arenas for months. Iran's national railroad was attacked in July, but that relatively unsophisticated hack may not have been Israeli. And Iran is accused of making a failed attack on Israel's water system last year. The latest attacks are thought to be the first to do widespread harm to large numbers of civilians. Nondefense computer networks are generally less secure than those tied to state security assets.
That attack was attributed to Israel by two U.S. defense officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential intelligence assessments. It was followed days later by cyberattacks in Israel against a major medical facility and a popular L.G.B.T.Q. dating site, attacks Israeli officials have attributed to Iran. The escalation comes as American authorities have warned of Iranian attempts to hack the computer networks of hospitals and other critical infrastructure in the United States. As hopes fade for a diplomatic resurrection of the Iranian nuclear agreement, such attacks are only likely to proliferate. Hacks have been seeping into civilian arenas for months. Iran's national railroad was attacked in July, but that relatively unsophisticated hack may not have been Israeli. And Iran is accused of making a failed attack on Israel's water system last year. The latest attacks are thought to be the first to do widespread harm to large numbers of civilians. Nondefense computer networks are generally less secure than those tied to state security assets.
I"m surprised... (Score:2)
Re: I"m surprised... (Score:3)
Maybe Iran is the whackjob run monster we help create. In 1950s USA funded terrorist bombers over there, later supported despots including one neighbor with money and dual use tech to mass WMD to kill Iranians. Then people wonder why Iran is doing what it is doing. It didn't draw first blood.
History didn't start in the 50's, and "we" were only involved in the more recent of a long line of conflicts.
Re:I"m surprised... (Score:4, Insightful)
...that Iran hasn't been turned to glass by some country by now.
The problem with nuking Iran is that it increases your own likelihood of ending up on the receiving end of a nuclear strike -- if not by Iran, then by one of Iran's allies.
MAD is still a thing, even in today's world.
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Re: I"m surprised... (Score:2)
Mutual Assured Distraction (Score:2)
Israelis end up sharing more details of their intimate lives than they are already oversharing. How much strain does this apply to Israeli daily living. So Natan doesn't like women? I know, I heard!
Does this exchange seem in the least bit symmetrical? I mean if Israeli's were immobilized by a fuel shortage and prominent Iranians were outed, wouldn't that play more to the darkest fears of these respective societies?
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And then there's the problem of nuking Iran and killing a whole lot of innocent people based on the premise that Iran might some day develop a nuke and use it against other innocent people.
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...that Iran hasn't been turned to glass by some country by now.
Which country? You need to understand that while they make a lot of noise about Israel and the US, Iran's bigger enemies, their competitor for regional power, are the Sunni Arabs. And Saudi Arabia in particular. The Saudis might not have nukes right now, but who do you think funded Pakistan's nuclear program?
Either non-state actors, or stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
When a smart state finds a vulnerability in enemy infrastructure, it goes in their back pocket and gets used later in concert with a shooting war. You don't use them just to piss off enemy citizens (and make your enemies look hard for other vulnerabilities and fix them).
Since the intelligence services of Israel and Iran are by and large not stupid, I can only conclude this harassment-level stuff is being done by third parties in both countries.
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The economic disruption will cost Israel hundreds of billions. Much of which would normally would have been spent on their war machine so as a lead up to a shooting war, not stupid. Besides saber rattling to force concessions in whatever they're fighting over this month as an implied lead-up to a shooting war, would be a little dumb but totally in character for Iran.
Quite frankly Israel has started more dumb full blown shooting wars than the Ayatollahs in Iran ever have. Israel started this particular chapter in their ongoing pissing contest with Iran when they launched that stupid gas pump attack. If they'd rather spend the money on god's chosen war machine then maybe Israel should just have left well enough alone and settled for making their military industrial complex happy with billions upon billions of taxpayer money. The Iranians aren't the squabbling bunch of se
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Outing a bunch of LGBTQ people in a country where LGBTQ people are pretty much protected will cost "hundreds of billions"? I don't think so.
I don't know if Israel was behind the gasoline supply disruption in Iran, but I highly doubt the Iranian state would be behind outing some LGBTQ celebrities. That sounds like silly kids more than a state actor.
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When a smart state finds a vulnerability in enemy infrastructure, it goes in their back pocket and gets used later in concert with a shooting war. You don't use them just to piss off enemy citizens
As a counterpoint: sometimes you actually do. Shows of force that remind your opponents what you're capable of and that you can reach them are fairly typical in geopolitical posturing, and that's just as true today of digital munitions as it is of the physical. Whether that show of force is a warning shot across the bow before the real damage starts or a bluff with nothing to back it up is the question you have to ask yourself.
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I disagree.
Breaking into a dating site is hardly 'enemy infrastructure', just because it's located in Israel doesn't mean it has anything in common with infrastructure that actually matters.
But it is consistent with their religious views against homosexuality, they can point at it and make claims about the moral inferiority of Israel.
And from Israel's point of view, maybe targeting civilian infrastructure like gas stations will foment unrest towards the government regardless of the cause, they've been blami
Re: Either non-state actors, or stupid (Score:2)
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But it's also a little bit of a stretch to refer to their population as "civilians" when almost all of them are either current or former military.
It's not a stretch, it's factually correct:
https://www.merriam-webster.co... [merriam-webster.com]
ciÂâvilÂâian | \ sÉ(TM)-Ëvil-yÉ(TM)n
also -Ëvi-yÉ(TM)n \
Definition of civilian
(Entry 1 of 2)
1 : a specialist in Roman or modern civil law
2a : one not on active duty in the armed services or not on a police or firefighting force
b : outsider sense 1
(bold highlight mine)
Like on Star Trek:TOS, maybe it's a good thing? (Score:2)
The Iran-Israel shadow war is now hitting ordinary citizens.
Perhaps A Taste of Armageddon [wikipedia.org] will help move things along, hopefully in a positive way.
Alf (Score:1)
Terrorists broaden cyberwar... FTFY
Need international rules of cyber war (Score:2)
Cyber weapons can qualify as WMDs - its easy to imagine a cyber attack doing the equivalent financial damage and loss of life of a chemical weapons attack
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its easy to imagine a cyber attack doing the equivalent financial damage and loss of life of a chemical weapons attack - and possibly a nuclear attack.
Is it? Please tell.
Bombs do not exploit weaknesses in structures that shouldn't be there in the first place. A bridge will be destroyed by a sufficiently large bomb, even if it is a perfectly good bridge.
Cyber attacks exploit weaknesses that shouldn't be there. If your software lets me do stuff on your computer that I'm not authorized to do, your software isn't perfectly good.
cyberwar .. do mean cyber BS ? (Score:2)