Israel has seen a surge in cyberattacks originating from Iran since the Hamas massacre on October 7.
Speaking at the annual National Cyber Cybertech Global Tel Aviv conference on Tuesday, director Gabi Portnoy stated, “On the digital level, by the order of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei, cyberattacks by Iran and Hezbollah in the region and beyond started around the clock against Israel.”
Portnoy contends that Israel has been hacked by Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security via proxies like Lebanese Cedar, a group of hackers affiliated with Hezbollah. Lebanese Cedar is responsible for the November hack at Ziv Medical Center in Safed, where scores of private patient information were stolen. Other attacks originated from an office building in Tehran that was posing as a software company.
“Iran is trying to harm business continuity. With one push of a button, it is Israel, and tomorrow it can be anywhere else,” he said.
A March report by the cybersecurity agency found that Iran had launched 3,380 cyber-attacks since Oct. 7, of which 800 had “significant potential for damage.”
