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Microsoft warns: after devastating cyber attacks on Israel, American politicians have something to fear.
Microsoft warn that Iran may use the same cyberattack and disinformation techniques it uses against Israel against the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
A report from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center says that in 2020, Iran already tried to interfere in the presidential election by spreading fake news and threatening emails on social networks. Experts fear that now, if desired, Tehran will use much more sophisticated tools.
During the military conflict between Israel and the radical Hamas movement last fall, disinformation campaigns aimed at denigrating the government and spreading anti-Israeli propaganda in the West became particularly frequent.
In the first week of the conflict, traffic to Iranian news sites and related media outlets in English-speaking countries increased dramatically-by 42%, according to Microsoft. Growth was particularly noticeable in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Although this hype subsided after the first week, over the next three weeks, traffic still remained 28% higher than the previous level.
And in December 2023, Iran used artificial intelligence technology for the first time in propaganda. Hackers broke into a British TV channel and instead of the usual news, they launched a fake broadcast with a presenter generated using a neural network. This audacious stunt allowed disinformation to reach viewers from the UK, Canada and the UAE.
Iran's cybercrime activity was also aimed at disabling critical infrastructure facilities.
For example, the Shahid Kaveh group used a ransomware virus to break into Israeli video surveillance systems. And the Homeland Justice group, linked to the Iranian security services, conducted a massive DDoS attack on Albanian government systems on December 25.
Microsoft experts have counted at least 14 pro-Iranian groups involved in similar operations against Israel and countries supporting it.
Active interaction between the attackers significantly increased their combined destructive potential and the strength of cyber attacks on strategically important enemy targets.
"Thanks to the close cooperation between different hacker groups, each of them can contribute to the overall effort using ready - made tools," said Clint Watts, general manager of the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center. "This eliminates the need for each group to develop the full range of tools for conducting cyber attacks alone from scratch."
"Tehran's attention to Israel has increased dramatically since the beginning of the military conflict. If earlier Iran's main targets were traditionally Israel and the United States, now 43% of all its cyber operations were aimed specifically at Israel. This is more than the total volume of attacks on the next 14 countries on the list of victims."
Microsoft warn that Iran may use the same cyberattack and disinformation techniques it uses against Israel against the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
A report from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center says that in 2020, Iran already tried to interfere in the presidential election by spreading fake news and threatening emails on social networks. Experts fear that now, if desired, Tehran will use much more sophisticated tools.
During the military conflict between Israel and the radical Hamas movement last fall, disinformation campaigns aimed at denigrating the government and spreading anti-Israeli propaganda in the West became particularly frequent.
In the first week of the conflict, traffic to Iranian news sites and related media outlets in English-speaking countries increased dramatically-by 42%, according to Microsoft. Growth was particularly noticeable in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Although this hype subsided after the first week, over the next three weeks, traffic still remained 28% higher than the previous level.
And in December 2023, Iran used artificial intelligence technology for the first time in propaganda. Hackers broke into a British TV channel and instead of the usual news, they launched a fake broadcast with a presenter generated using a neural network. This audacious stunt allowed disinformation to reach viewers from the UK, Canada and the UAE.
Iran's cybercrime activity was also aimed at disabling critical infrastructure facilities.
For example, the Shahid Kaveh group used a ransomware virus to break into Israeli video surveillance systems. And the Homeland Justice group, linked to the Iranian security services, conducted a massive DDoS attack on Albanian government systems on December 25.
Microsoft experts have counted at least 14 pro-Iranian groups involved in similar operations against Israel and countries supporting it.
Active interaction between the attackers significantly increased their combined destructive potential and the strength of cyber attacks on strategically important enemy targets.
"Thanks to the close cooperation between different hacker groups, each of them can contribute to the overall effort using ready - made tools," said Clint Watts, general manager of the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center. "This eliminates the need for each group to develop the full range of tools for conducting cyber attacks alone from scratch."
"Tehran's attention to Israel has increased dramatically since the beginning of the military conflict. If earlier Iran's main targets were traditionally Israel and the United States, now 43% of all its cyber operations were aimed specifically at Israel. This is more than the total volume of attacks on the next 14 countries on the list of victims."
