How does the US manage the cyber war against Iran?

Ali Ragab

It is not the war of bullets, planes and missiles that is the highlight of the nature of the battles between Iran and America, but the war has multiple climaxes, at the foremost of which is cyber war. Washington declared cyber war against Tehran, targeting Iranian computer systems used to launch rockets and an Iranian spy network used to monitor ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz, according to Yahoo News.

The cyber attacks come after Iran shot down a US drone. The Washington Post revealed that US President Donald Trump issued a secret order to US Cyber Command to launch retaliatory cyber attacks against the mullahs.

It is noteworthy that Iran has a cyber army that targets American economic and military institutions, making the US cyber attack a major development in the American-Iranian war.

Iran’s cyber war

In his book “Cyber War” (2010), former US National Coordinator for Security Richard Clarke classified Iran as being directly behind China in terms of offensive capabilities in cyber warfare.

Charles Yoo, president of Resecurity, told the Wall Street Journal in February that Iranian hackers stole information from an Australian parliament database, including information and data from more than 7,000 individuals, according to an analysis by the California-based cybersecurity company, which had also found that Iran had also been behind previous cyber attacks.

The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions in February 2018 on nine senior leaders and companies connected to the Revolutionary Guard-affiliated Mabna Institute on charges of cyber attacks on the US and Europe that included hacking computer systems and stealing property data.

“The victims of the group included about 144 American universities, 176 foreign universities in 21 countries, two international non-governmental organizations, five federal and state agencies in the United States, and 11 private foreign companies,” the FBI said.

Intelligence and economic activity

In February, US authorities arrested Monica Witt, a former US Air Force sergeant and intelligence contractor, for spying for Iran and providing sensitive military and security information used in the cyber attacks.

Iranian affairs expert Dr. Mohammed Banaya said that the cyber war announced by Washington against Iran aims at paralyzing the capabilities of Iran’s cyber army, allowing the US to control and spy on Iran’s military capabilities, as well as completely disable Iran’s missile system.

Banaya added that Washington targeting the capabilities of Iran’s cyber army is a blow to the mullahs in cyberspace and their ability to spy and strike targets in the US, Europe and the Gulf He pointed out that while the declared objective of the US is targeting Iran’s military and intelligence capabilities, he does not rule out that Washington could also target Iran’s economic institutions to weaken the economic capacity of the mullahs.