Israel v/s Iran struggle for the position of cyber superpower in ME
In latest episode of cyber-warfare between Tehran and Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-based Check Point reported a strike by ‘Charming Kitten’. The attack targeted entities belonging to Israeli government and business sector.
According to CheckPoint “they had blocked these attacks when they witnessed communications between a server used by this group and the targets in Israel”. Their 48 hours report proves that both criminal hacking groups and nation state actors are engaged in the exploration of this vulnerability.
Allegations of cyber war between Iran and Israel have escalated in recent months. Israel has been blamed for a series of cyber-attacks on Iranian infrastructure, including the country’s fuel distribution system in October.
Another purportedly Iran-linked hacking group called “Black Shadow” claimed an October cyber-attack on an Israeli internet service provider.
It can now be concluded that Charming Kitten is after people who have “information of interest to the Iranian government, including, but not limited to, information about foreign policy, insights into Iranian dissident movements, and understanding of U.S. nuclear negotiations.”
Iranian has built itself self-sufficient to track down its adversaries while other Middle Eastern states like UAE, Saudi, Egypt and Bahrain take help from foreign private firms to track their dissidents.
For instance, Qatar was supported by Turkey, US based Global Risk Advisors (GRA) and Italy’s Hacking Team; UAE was supported by Israeli firm NSO Group, Bulgaria’s Circles and Baltimore’s Cyber Point; Saudi Arabia was supported by Germany’s Gamma International and Israeli NSO Group; Bahrain was supported by Italy’s Hacking Team and Egypt by Chinese interception company Privis Technology.
Another Israeli firm Candiru also known as Saito Tech (previously Taveta Ltd) founded by Isaac Zack, is another supplier of cyber-intrusion tools that has become closer to Qatar by receiving investment from Qatar Investment Fund.
But as on date, the facts suggest that there are two major self-sufficient cyber super powers in ME, Israel and Iran who are extremely hostile towards each other. A major difference between these two super powers is that while Iran is more focused on meeting its own State agenda through cyber warfare Israel has become an outsourcing hub of cyber offensive technology around the globe through its major registered companies in mainland and its shell companies abroad.
