Increasingly advanced Iranian cyberattacks mount

CyberScoop reports that more sophisticated and targeted cyberattacks have since been deployed by Iranian cyber threat operations months after the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas broke out. After initially launching reactionary and opportunistic attacks against Israel in October, Iran-linked threat groups proceeded to expand the targeting against the U.S. and other countries and entities supporting Israel a month later, a report from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center showed. Such intrusions included Iranian hacking group Cyber Av3ngers' compromise of U.S. water control systems via attacks against Israeli-manufactured programmable logic controllers, according to Microsoft. While Iranian officials involved in the attack have already been sanctioned, other Iranian hackers could also work to compromise the upcoming presidential elections. "Ahead of US elections in November 2024, the increased collaboration among Iranian and Iran-affiliated groups portends a greater challenge to those engaging in election defense. Defenders can no longer take solace in tracking a few groups. Rather, a growing number of access agents, influence groups, and cyber actors makes for a more complex and intertwined threat environment," researchers said.