Johanna Yang & Ari Ben Am
The Iranian hacking group Handala last week breached an Israeli electronics firm that operates panic button systems in schools, causing red alert sirens to trigger in at least 20 kindergartens across Israel and terrorizing children. Such sirens are normally used to alert students and teachers to incoming rocket and missile fire. While Iran is often considered a second-tier cyber actor, its hackers regularly use influence operations to incite terror and panic.
Israel’s National Cyber Directorate confirmed the latest hack and warned that Handala also sent threatening text messages to tens of thousands of Israelis. Over the past 10 months, Handala has launched 50 operations against Israeli and international targets. The organization, which brands itself as pro-Palestinian, is one of many purportedly independent hacking groups that Iran uses to conduct cyber operations and psychological warfare against Israel. While the scale and frequency of Iran’s operations are concerning, Israel’s significant cyber defense capabilities usually mitigate the disruptive impacts. These defenses, however, do not stop Iranian bluster about their successes.
Dangerous but Exaggerated Operations
Purported Iranian hacks are often exaggerated or completely fictional. Earlier this week, Handala also claimed that it pilfered the personal information of police officers and firefighters from Israeli government systems and that it broke into the command-and-control systems of the Ministry of National Security (IMNS). IMNS and the Israel National Cyber Directorate, however, found no unusual activity in the ministry’s systems.
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