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Thu, 12 Mar 2026

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 What role has cyber warfare played in Iran?

Militaries are often cagey about their cyber activities. But the US has hinted at the role it has played.

* Cyber-espionage and hacking have played a significant role in "pre-positioning" for war, allowing US and Israeli hackers to infiltrate key computer networks in Iran months or even years before the actual strike.
* The Financial Times reported that Israel had hacked CCTV and traffic cameras to create an enormous surveillance network, tracking the patterns of life of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his commanders.
* Cyber operations have been used to disrupt and "blind" Iran's ability to see, communicate, and respond, with some commentators suggesting mobile phone towers were jammed or shut off to prevent warnings from being sent.
* US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth boasted that members of the Iranian military "can't talk or communicate, let alone mount a coordinated and sustained offensive".
* The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools is likely playing a significant role in cyber operations, with operatives using open source intelligence, satellite imagery analysis, and cyber-espionage to locate military targets.
* Israel has been accused of hacking an Iranian prayer-timing app called BadeSaba, sending a push notification to users just as the bombs began to hit saying "help has arrived".
* Despite the significant role of cyber operations in the war, Iran has largely been absent from the cyber domain, with some commentators suggesting they may have been incapacitated by Israeli strikes or overestimated.
* The US and Israel's use of cyber warfare is shrouded in secrecy, but experts argue that it should be talked about openly to maintain rules of engagement and prevent unintended consequences.