Iranian hackers have long demonstrated an alarming ability to disrupt and sabotage a wide range of targets in Israel and the United States. From civil and commercial entities to critical national infrastructure and military assets, the breadth of Iran’s cyber reach has raised serious concerns among security experts.

In response, the US State Department announced on Thursday a $10 million reward for information leading to the identification or location of six prominent Iranian hackers. Identifying themselves as CyberAv3ngers, the hacking group is linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

CyberAv3ngers targeted US industrial control systems crucial to the operation of water treatment facilities across the country. The hackers exploited vulnerabilities in programmable logic controllers (PLCs) manufactured by Israeli company Unitronics.

PLCs are widely used not only in wastewater and water management but also in energy, food and beverage, manufacturing, and healthcare sectors. Leaving anti-Israel messages on the devices digital screens, many of these cyber-attacks rendered the systems inoperable.

Iran’s transformation into a global cyber power was accelerated by two critical events over a decade ago.

The first was the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests, where opposition groups effectively leveraged the internet to organize and sustain mass demonstrations against electoral fraud. While the regime eventually quashed the unrest, it gained a stark awareness of digital technology’s potential to threaten its power.

Just a year later came the Stuxnet cyber attack on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure which was widely attributed to US and Israeli efforts. As the first known cyberattack to cause physical damage, Stuxnet exposed Iran’s digital vulnerabilities and spurred a comprehensive expansion of its own cyber hacking capabilities.