Iranian Hackers Expand Cyberwarfare Aggression, Target U.S. Military Personnel

(New York, N.Y.) – An unintentional leak by the Iranian regime-affiliated hacking group Charming Kitten has revealed new efforts by Tehran to target American officials and U.S. military personnel by taking control of their Google accounts. The leak – which was first discovered in May by IBM’s cyber intelligence unit, uncovered a trove of information on Iran’s cyberwarfare capabilities, including video footage that shows how the hackers had breached the Google account of a U.S. Navy official. The incident is the latest in a string of offensive cyber operations reportedly perpetrated by Iranian agents against U.S. and Western targets.

In April, Reuters reported that hackers working in the interest of the Iranian government attempted to infiltrate the email accounts of staff at the World Health Organization (WHO) using phishing attempts intended to mimic Google Web Services to their personal accounts of WHO staff. In May, the Washington Post reported that Iranian hackers attempted a cyberattack on Israel’s water supplies.

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI)’s resource, The Iranian Cyber Threat, outlines the structure of Iran’s cyber infrastructure, analyzes the Islamic Republic’s cyber methods and motivations and prescribes solutions to counter the threat. The U.S. ought to ensure that defending critical infrastructure against cyber attacks is a key priority, continue its strategic collaboration with allied countries, and engage in a more proactive public-private approach to identify vulnerable targets and bolster cybersecurity across the board in order to achieve collective defense. The main factor preventing Iran from launching major, disruptive cyber attacks against the U.S. homeland is not necessarily lacking of opportunity or ability, but the regime’s calculus as to whether the benefits of such an attack outweigh the costs it would likely incur.

To read UANI’s resource, The Iranian Cyber Threat, please click here.

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