In response to the drone hunt by Iranian Revolutionary Guards, the US military has launched cyber attacks on Iranian missile control systems and spy network. The assault injured computers used to control rocket and missile launches, as per the Post, while Yahoo News said a spying bunch responsible for tracking sea traffic in Gulf was also targeted.
Earlier, the US President decided to avenge Iran with a military strike but it was called off later by Trump as he believed it could kill over 150 people, as stated in his tweet. Although the military strike was called off, Trump secretly authorized US Cyber Command to conduct the cyber attacks. The attack was already developed as a contingency plan with regard to the escalating conditions.
Iran has not responded to the situation as yet, however, a news agency claimed that it is not clear whether the attacks were effective or not. Iran has solidified and disengaged quite a bit of its foundation from the web after the Stuxnet computer virus, broadly accepted to be a joint US-Israeli creation, disturbed a huge number of Iranian axes in the late 2000s.
Iranian hackers are also in action to target US agencies by sending spear-phishing emails. The emails contain viruses but appear to be legitimate. Although it is not clear if they have managed to gain access to the system to extract any information. Director of intelligence at FireEye John Hultquist says that “Both sides are desperate to know what the other side is thinking. You can absolutely expect the regime to be leveraging every tool they have available to reduce the uncertainty about what’s going to happen next, about what the US’s next move will be.”
Trump administration has decided to impose even harsh sanctions on Iran to damage the oil sales and the local economy. Despite the severe conditions and increasing sanctions, Iran still refuses to step back from the nuclear program.