Iranian cyber-attacks have become a global threat, warns top Israeli cyber chief

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The director of the Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) warned on Tuesday that Iran’s growing cyber terrorism has become a global threat since the Hamas invasion and attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7.

INCD chief Gaby Portnoy emphasized that, while Israel is a central target for Iranian cyberterrorism, Tehran’s cyber-attacks have become a global threat.

“We have identified that Iran is attacking its allies and other countries for information extortion and damaging digital services,” Portnoy said during his speech at the Cyberweek annual conference held at Tel Aviv University. “The information stolen from government systems is then used for Iranian cyberterrorism,” he added.

Countries that have reportedly become targets of Iranian cyber attacks include the United States, Great Britain, India, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

Portnoy urged the international community to confront the growing Iranian cyber threat, both directly and through its terror proxies, which includes Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

“That makes Iranian cyber aggression an international problem, not only an Israeli one, and therefore the solution needs to be international,” the Israeli cyber chief stated.

In February, the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) published a report that confirmed the Iranian regime’s increased cyber-terrorism activities since Oct. 7.

“As the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7, 2023, Iran immediately surged support to Hamas with its now well-honed technique of combining targeted hacks with influence operations amplified on social media; what we refer to as cyber-enabled influence operations,” the report stated.

MTAC identified the goals of the Iranian cyber-terrorism campaign as “destabilization, retaliation, intimidation, and undermining international support for Israel. All four of these objectives also seek to undermine Israel and its supporters’ information environments to create general confusion and lack of trust.”

Portnoy specifically mentioned the IRGC-affiliated Imperial Kitten as a central player in Iran’s global terrorism strategy.

“We see the Imperial Kitten work, operated by the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps], both in Israel and the US, where – 4 activists and 4 straw companies were sanctioned for operating against federal facilities,” he said.

The Israeli cyber chief concluded that international cooperation was essential in order to remove the Iranian cyber threat.

“We need to step up the way we work together, where we have national-level cyber dome defense, sectoral and organizational cloud SOCs [security operations center], like the CyberShield project we are developing, to detect and defend against cyberattacks, while protecting all sides’ interests and privacy.”

Cyber attacks have become increasingly expensive for the targeted countries.

Israeli State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, who attended the cyber conference, estimated that, in 2024, Israel would spend approximately $3.2 billion to manage the growing cyber attacks against various Israeli institutions.

The State of Israel is ranked among the world’s leading cyber tech nations. The growing Iranian cyber- terrorism threat has led to a surge in demand for solutions and investments in Israeli cyber companies.

In April, the founder of the Israeli company Cybertech, Amir Rapaport, assessed that the Israeli cyber tech industry was booming as a result of the growing Iranian threats.

“The trend of increased mergers and acquisitions in Israeli cyber, which began last year, continues into 2024, as global cyber threats grow year by year," he said.