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Israel's Cyber Campaign Hacked Iran's Financial System
(Wall Street Journal) Michael Doran and Zineb Riboua - The 12-day war between Israel and Iran featured an unprecedented cyber campaign against the Islamic Republic's financial system. Israel destroyed digital assets and banking records to undermine the regime. Israel first struck Bank Sepah, Iran's oldest and largest state-owned bank that serves as the central financial institution of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Predatory Sparrow, a hacker group linked to the Israeli government, claimed credit for erasing Bank Sepah's banking data and rendering its systems inoperable. Automated teller machines went dark, and online and in-branch services shut down. Salary and pension payments halted. As panic spread, a run on all banks ensued. Iran's largest commercial bank, Bank Melli, though untouched by the hack, couldn't meet the demand for cash. The Tehran Stock Exchange crashed, and the Iranian rial collapsed, losing 12% of its value after the first day of the war. On June 18, Predatory Sparrow reportedly extracted $90 million from cryptocurrency wallets linked to the Revolutionary Guards. These Israeli operations made clear that the Islamic Republic's financial infrastructure survives at the pleasure of the Jewish state. Mr. Doran is a senior fellow and Ms. Riboua a research fellow at the Hudson Institute.