Israel says Iran behind cyber attack on Technion Institute of Technology

Iran was behind a cyber attack on the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology last month, Israel’s National Cyber Directorate said on Tuesday. 

The attack, which took place on February 12, was carried out by “MuddyWater”, a group affiliated with Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security.

Technion issued a statement after the attack last month, saying it was dealing with a “challenging cyber-attack,” causing it to postpone the exams last month.

Last year, the UK and U.S. issued a joint statement, connecting MuddyWater to Iran, saying the group conducted “cyber espionage and other malicious cyber operations targeting a range of government and private-sector organisations across sectors—including telecommunications, defence, local government, and oil and natural gas—in Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America.”

Israel and Iran have engaged in tit for tat confrontations in recent years, including cyber attacks. According to a report in the Financial Times, Iran launched a cyberattack against Israel’s water systems in April 2020, in an attempt to increase the chlorine levels in the water.

A month later that same year, Washington Post reported that Israel was likely behind a cyber-attack on the Iranian port of Shahid Rajaee which brought it to “an abrupt and inexplicable halt”