Noam Shaar, a key Israeli cyber defense official, has said that Iranian hackers almost gained access to Israel’s missile warning system in 2017. After detecting the intrusion and realizing the end goal of the attacks, the Israeli military blocked the hackers and took steps to further secure their systems. “We dealt with them and built another barrier and another monitoring system to make sure we could stop them if they tried again,” Shaar explained.
The Israeli official believes that hacking operations sponsored by the Iranian government are the most dangerous development in the context of cybersecurity, and is calling for international sanctions targeting Iran’s cyber capabilities. However, while the Iranian cyber threat is very real and worrisome, recent research shows that Iranian hackers are far less skilled than Russian hackers and also rank behind their North Korean and Chinese counterparts.
Read more: Iranian Hackers Drew Worryingly Close to Israel’s Missile Alarm
