Skip to Content

The US has launched a cyber attack against Iran’s weapons systems

White House
White HouseAP

The attack was in response to the downing of an unmanned US surveillance drone last Thursday. 

The news: The attack on Iran was conducted by US Cyber Command, targeting computer systems used to control rocket and missile launches, according to the Washington Post. There were no deaths and it was deemed “very” effective, officials told the Wall Street Journal. US officials declined to comment on the attack. In an interview yesterday, Vice President Mike Pence told CBS: “We never comment on covert operations.” 

Long time coming: The attack had been in the works for weeks, if not months, but it’s likely that escalating tensions in the region accelerated its launch. President Trump had tweeted that "Iran made a very big mistake" by shooting down the US surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz, compelling anti-war protesters to gather outside the White House on Thursday night (pictured above.) Trump then ordered a bombing strike against three targets in Iran, but changed his mind at the last minute. 

Blurring boundaries: There is much we still don’t know about the attack: how it was carried out, exactly what the target was, how it worked technically, and so on. However, it’s a clear example of the way the lines between physical and digital warfare are blurring. Last month Israel launched a missile attack on Hamas operatives it said were engaged in cyber warfare, for example.

Sign up here to our daily newsletter The Download to get your dose of the latest must-read news from the world of emerging tech.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

The inside story of how ChatGPT was built from the people who made it

Exclusive conversations that take us behind the scenes of a cultural phenomenon.

ChatGPT is about to revolutionize the economy. We need to decide what that looks like.

New large language models will transform many jobs. Whether they will lead to widespread prosperity or not is up to us.

Sam Altman invested $180 million into a company trying to delay death

Can anti-aging breakthroughs add 10 healthy years to the human life span? The CEO of OpenAI is paying to find out.

GPT-4 is bigger and better than ChatGPT—but OpenAI won’t say why

We got a first look at the much-anticipated big new language model from OpenAI. But this time how it works is even more deeply under wraps.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.