Iran-affiliated hackers breached information of Israeli defence company -

Tel Aviv: Iran, who had threatened to avenge the assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, has initiated cyberattacks on Israel. The Iranian hacker group, Pay2Key, launched an attack on an Israeli company and leaked the data on the dark web. A hacker group connected with Iran published this information regarding the attack. This becomes the second major attack on an Israeli company in the last two weeks. Meanwhile, the gravity of the cyberattack increases as India, the United States and the European Union are connected with this Israeli company attacked by the Iranian hackers.

The server of Elta Systems, a company linked with the Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI), was hacked by the Iranian Pay2Key group. On Sunday night, the Iranian hacker group posted the information regarding the cyberattack. The hackers posted information regarding employees, including a senior project developer from the Israeli company, on the dark web. This also included passwords of senior employees of the company. Israeli information scientist Karine Nahon informed that the Iranian hackers had posted hundreds of bits of sensitive information on the dark web.

Israeli IAI is one of the leading companies in the global defence sector. IAI manufactures passenger airliners, military aircraft, drones, radars, ballistic missiles and also flight and space technologies. These include leading defence equipment like Barak missiles, Heron drones and Elta radar. The defence forces from India, the United States and European Union are connected with the IAI and Elta Systems since the last few years. This increases the importance of the cyberattack carried out by the Iranian hackers on the Israeli company.

This is the biggest cyberattack on Elta Systems, connected with the Israeli defence sector. Before this, the Iranian hackers had targeted more than 40 logistics companies in Israel. The servers of Amital Data, a company linked to the Tel Aviv stock market, had been hacked. These cyberattacks have direct linkages with Iran. In the current year, five major cyberattacks have been carried out on websites and servers linked to the Israeli government and military. Out of these, the attack on the Israeli water department, at the beginning of the year, was the biggest.

After that, in May, Iran accused that there was a cyberattack on the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. Iran charged that the website of an oil-related company had been hacked. Since the last few years, there is a cyber conflict between Israel and Iran. Before this, Iran had accused Israel of attacking the Iranian nuclear plant with Stuxnet. Thousands of centrifuges in the Iranian nuclear project were rendered useless following the attack. This set the Iranian nuclear program back. Iran had accused Israel of cyberattacks, even after that.

Meanwhile, the cyberwar between Iran and Israel is intensifying since the last year. It is claimed that Iran, infuriated with the assassination of nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, will use cyberattacks to target Israel rather than military action. Reactions have started emanating even from Israel over the Iranian attacks.