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 Iranian "Hackers" massively attacked our Navy.

Written by Ioannis Ath. Baltzoi*

          An invisible war is being waged continuously and uninterruptedly in the visible and dark world of the internet, which is not perceived, but its results are decisive, in many areas, such as defense, security, the economy and generally in the public structures of a state entity. We live today in the era of the "dictatorship" of social media, the so-called NEW MEDIA which are powerful weapons of influence, propaganda, communication, deception, etc. These are "Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YOUTUBE, Istangram" etc., which have surpassed the hitherto omnipotent media. 

They are very important "tools" at the disposal of everyone, used by organizations, state entities, services, companies, institutions and individuals to disseminate messages, promote information, obtain personal data for multiple uses and purposes. Through them you can also inform, reveal, mislead, conceal, direct, promote ideas, things and situations, cause state sabotage, reveal military secrets and data and generally cause enormous damage to companies, organizations, Armed Forces and in general to any state entity.

The Iranian "Hackers"

Thus, recently, a serious hostile action against Greece was revealed. Specifically, as revealed in an article by Israeli Captain (retd.) Eyal Pinko on the Israeli website https://www.israeldefense.co.il/ and republished by the excellent and reliable newspaper The Jerusalem Post on 9/9/20, in recent months, it was revealed that an Iranian group of “hackers” attacked many officers and structures of our Navy. The goal of the attack was to breach the email accounts and social media (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) of our Navy executives. The attack was carried out by a well-known group of Iranian “hackers” called “Charming Kitten” or APT-35. In fact, this group has been attributed with many cyberattacks against the military, military infrastructure, scientists, and nuclear infrastructure of the US and other countries, hence their reputation.

According to Captain (retd) Eyal Pinko, the Iranian "hacker" group succeeded in breaching a large number of personal accounts of Greek Navy personnel and leaking personal information, documents, photos and videos, lists of phone numbers and addresses, bank account details, credit card numbers and more!!! The attack was discovered by a team of IBM researchers who presented some videos, in which the Iranian "hackers" are seen carrying out the electronic attack against Navy officials.

It is not clear what prompted the Iranian group of “hackers” to carry out this unprecedented cyberattack. The IBM researchers who revealed the cyberattack did not say whether the data collected by the Iranians was used for criminal purposes or intelligence gathering, or for anything else. However, they did mention many cyberattacks by “Charming Kitten” against our Navy and it is not known what damage they have caused, especially if they managed to create malware and install it on the computers of the officers or on the computer networks of the Hellenic Navy!! This cyberattack caused many concerns and great concern among the political and military leadership, as well as senior officials of the Greek Ministry of Defense, regarding the self-defense and defense capabilities of the computer and data network of the Greek Ministry of Defense, claims Pinko. And he believes that during this period of high tension in the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea, it is possible that the Iranians acted in collaboration with the Turks and carried out this cyberattack, with the aim of serving and assisting the Turks, who have limited capabilities in this field.  

          Estimates.

          The revelations of the Israeli Captain are extremely serious and are the first time we have had such a serious incident. This action by the Iranian “hacker” group “Charming Kitten” or APT-35 is a very serious aggressive action by Iran against the Greek Armed Forces, since it is absolutely certain that it was carried out with the knowledge of the Iranian leadership, since no group can act autonomously and without control in today's Iran, where everything is controlled by the regime. Moreover, this group is famous for its cyberattacks against American and Israeli military targets, as well as many other targets, under the tacit approval of the Iranian authorities. When the cyberattack took place is not mentioned, but it refers to a few months ago. Whether they collaborated with the Turks and on their behalf, I personally consider it a given for the following reasons:

• Ø Iranians are considered experts and among the best in this genre.
• Ø The Turks are lagging behind in this area and, as has been revealed, they use paid "hacker" groups from other countries, basically friendly to them.
• Ø Judging by the developments in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, especially in recent months and the events, where the navies of the two countries have been in the so-called "gray zone between peace and war" for a quarter of a year, in a situation we would call "warlike confrontation" in peacetime, it seems logical, as far as the Turks are concerned, that they would want to know the "thoughts" and movements of our Navy in advance, in order to adapt their own movements and have the initiative to act.

If we judge from the Prime Minister's announcements in Thessaloniki regarding the E.D., we will find that the 6^η The announcement of measures refers to the strengthening of the digital operation of the Armed Forces, as well as their shielding from hybrid cyberattacks. Modern systems will be installed at each of their operational levels that ensure a secure flow of information and therefore timely mobilization. This announcement by the Prime Minister obviously confirms the cyberattack by Iranian "hackers" and is very important, necessary and imperative and should have been done earlier, like so many other things. And it proves the criminal responsibility of all previous governments, which criminally "devalued" for so many years the main factor of strategic deterrence of a country, military power, that is, their Armed Forces, and some will eventually have to apologize for their inaction. In the field of cyberwarfare, we should ask for the help of our friends and allies, the Israelis, who are the leaders in hybrid warfare and cyberdefense. Suffice it to say that during the wars in Gaza, Israel received approximately 3 million cyberattacks per day and only 1-2 passed the electronic security net. Finally, the action of the Iranian "hackers" is a hostile action, Iran, which was considered a friendly country towards Greece, committed a great mistake by helping Turkey for this aggressive, hostile action.

*Ioannis Ath. Baltzoi is Antgos (n.a.), M.Scin Geopolitics and president of the Hellenic Institute for Strategic Studies (ELISME).