US Strikes Killed Iranian Cyber Chiefs, But The Hacks Continued Iran's hackers have had some successes since some cyber leaders were killed in missile strikes. This is the online edition of The Wiretap newsletter, your weekly digest of cybersecurity, internet privacy and surveillance news. To get it in your inbox, Iran's cyber espionage groups have been intermittently active since the war with the U. S. and Israel began, with one notable breach of a U.S. company.hen the U.S. and Israel launched their initial strikes on Iran at the end of February, one of the reported targets was the Ministry of Intelligence and Security .two Iranians accused of running cyber operations against Western entities were killed in the strikesThe other was Seyed Yahya Hosseiny Panjaki, a deputy minister of intelligence for Israeli affairs at MOIS who is on thePanjaki was in charge of the MOIS unit that controlled hacking groups like Handala, long known as a pro-Iranian crew that has successfully targeted Israeli politicians and Western businesses. According to the FBI, Panaki was linked to terror plots and cyberattacks organized by MOIS and and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.” But that hasn’t taken down Iran’s cyber capabilities. Handala claimed one of its most significant scalps in the form of Michigan-based medical device provider Stryker last week. The group claimed to have hacked and wiped the company’s systems, permanently erasing 12 petabytes of data. “Such a scale of data destruction is unprecedented to this day,” it wrote on its website. Stryker confirmed in a notice to customers that its Microsoft systems had been compromised and it was “now in the restoration process, which is progressing steadily.” Handala also claimed to have breached Israeli payments provider Verifone, though the company said it had found no evidence of any breach. Meanwhile, another group believed to operate under the same MOIS umbrella called Homeland Justice said it had hacked Albania’s parliament on Sunday because of its support of an Iranian anti-regime group. Albanian officials confirmed email systems had been taken offline as a result of the breach.reported earlier this month, it’s stayed online thanks to smuggled Starlink satellite internet devices from Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Israeli cybersecurity company Check PointHandala also appeared to be using AI to help write its malicious code, though it was unable to identify which models had been used. Such is the autonomy of groups like Handala, cyberattacks are likely to continue alongside Iran’s retaliatory drone and missile strikes across the Middle East.. In some cases, though, people were faster. “There’s still room at the top for humans,” says cofounder and CEO Pavel Gurvich., a “proxy” network of hacked home routers used to funnel and hide cybercriminal traffic. Hackers used the network in a $1 million crypto theft and another $100,000 theft from the MilitaryStar benefits program for service members.tricking NBA and NFL players into giving him their Apple iCloud login, first posing as a porn star and offering to send explicit videos to the players. Ford then spoofed legitimate Apple customer service accounts to pose as a support rep, telling the victims they needed to send their user name, password and multi-factor authentication codes to access the videos, according to the feds. He then used his access to iCloud accounts to pilfer bank account details, the DOJ alleged. Investigators also claimed Ford coerced a woman into sleeping with a number of pro athletes in return for money and filming the sexual acts without the sports stars’ knowledge.