Iran and Israel appear to be stepping up tit-for-tat cyber attacks on each other’s civilian information technology infrastructure in what appears to be the latest phase of their escalating rivalry.

On Wednesday, Israelis were assessing the wreckage after attacks by a suspected Iranian-linked hacker collective Black Shadow on a medical institute and LGBTQ+ dating website that resulted in the leak of private information about tens of thousands of Israelis. The attacks followed a 26 October cyber-attack on a network of Iranian petrol stations, which Tehran has attributed to Israel. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-israel-cyber-lgbtq-leak-war-b1950673.html

The exchange points to a new trend of targeting civilians in the shadow war between Israel and Iran. The two attacks appear to be the first that caused widespread harm to civilians, auguring an escalation in the cyber conflict as softer targets are drawn into the line of fire.

The hack of Iran’s gas distribution system began on October 26, shutting down civilian gas pumps and broadcasting digital messages blaming Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The cyber attack brought all of the country’s 4,300 fuel distribution stations to a halt, resulting in traffic jams, long lines at gas stations and other transportation problems. https://www.timesofisrael.com/2-us-defense-officials-say-israel-hacked-irans-gas-system-last-month-nyt/

Four days after the attack on Iran’s gas system, hackers broke into the Israeli LGBTQ dating site Atraf and accessed files at a network of medical clinics, obtaining personal information on 1.5 million Israelis. The Black Shadow hacking group released what it said was the full database of personal user information from the Atraf website. The data leak caused concern among those users of the Atraf site who have not publicly disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identification.

Neither Israel nor Iran has publicly claimed responsibility for the latest round of cyberattacks. Israeli officials refused to publicly accuse Iran, and Iranian officials have blamed the gas station attack on a foreign country, stopping short of naming one. Both countries appear to be striking out at civilians to send messages to their governments. Experts say the cyberattacks on softer civilian targets could be the start of a new phase in the conflict.

READ MORE: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/27/world/middleeast/iran-israel-cyber-hack.html