Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) Chief Gabi Portnoy said on Tuesday that, “anyone who carries out a cyber attack against Israeli citizens needs to take into account the price he will pay.”
Speaking at the Tel Aviv University Cyber Week Conference, Portnoy specifically singled out Iran and Hezbollah in his threat.
More specifically, he addressed cyber attacks by the group MuddyWater, which he identified as associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and which attacked the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology a few months ago.
“The group doesn’t just work against Israel, but rather also hacks civilian targets in many other countries, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, India, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and others,” said Portnoy.
This statement of Iran’s attacks on Sunni states came despite the Islamic Republic’s nominal improved relations with the Saudis and other Sunni states.
Hacker (illustrative) (credit: PXFUEL)The INCD chief stated that in the past year, MuddyWater had tried to attack other targets in Israel, but unsuccessfully.
The people behind the attacks
He added, “The Israeli cyber community knows Iran’s cyber operations inside-out and works to thwart it in many ways. Iran’s intelligence personnel, the IRGC and Hezbollah who are involved in cyber operations against Israel know exactly what I am talking about.
“I want to back the actions of the US against Iran’s violence, as well as the sanctions which they placed on two key players in Iranian intelligence: Farazin Karimi and Majteba Matzafi, who set up the Radwan Academic Group, which trains hackers for bad purposes,” he added.
Continuing, he flagged an operative named Ali Hidari who operates out of Beirut and “coordinates cyber operations between Iran and Hezbollah, which causes harm to the Lebanese civilian sector in the cyber area.”
In addition, he said that for some in Iranian intelligence, using the digital sphere to harm civilians “is part of their routine.”
Portnoy called on top international cyber officials to work together to stop Iranian and Hezbollah hackers “from their attacks on the world.”
Separately, Portnoy praised Google, Microsoft and other private sector companies for helping Israel build its “cyber dome” – a digital Iron Dome against cyber attacks as well as for assisting in building a 40-country apparatus for investigating and sharing information relating to enemy cyber-attacks.
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