Disinformation: Fake News
Active measures also include falsifying facts or disseminating fake news. This is more than polishing a country’s image; it is weaponizing falsehoods for political purposes. According to veteran intelligence analyst John Barron, disinformation often involves clandestine activity. World War II began with a staged attack. German SS operatives transported concentration camp prisoners, dressed as German soldiers, to a radio station near the Polish border. Then SS personnel shot the prisoners and presented their bodies as evidence of a Polish attack against Germany. Germany then used this fake news as a pretext to invade Poland. The KGB was adept at disinformation tactics. Among the more notorious was the AIDS hoax. The KGB circulated the lie that the United States developed AIDS as part of a biological weapons program. In this case, and in many others, the Soviets obtained genuine documents from Western countries and altered wording to make the forgeries appear more authentic.
Iran, too, falsifies material as a tactic of political warfare. For example, a propagandist altered a photograph of Tom Hanks that was circulated on social media to depict the actor wearing a shirt bearing political slogans. In January 2019, in a tribute to the Guards, graphic artists superimposed a photo of the U.S.-built Space Shuttle onto a photograph of Iranian scientists, suggesting that Iran had in fact built the shuttle.
In fall 2018, Facebook deleted hundreds of groups and accounts it connected to Iranian information operations. The propaganda these operators disseminated promoted quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s accusations against American society and disparaged President Trump and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Iranian falsehoods rely on well-worn core themes, embellishing and updating them with lies. A central refrain is Holocaust denial. Iran argues that it possesses hidden knowledge that the Holocaust was a hoax created by Jews to justify the creation of Israel, acquire collective victim status, and bilk foreign countries of billions of dollars. This hoax is allegedly possible because Jews control the world’s media, Western entertainment, global banking, and foreign governments. Iran also builds on ancient anti-Semitic tropes, such as their guilt in killing Christ and the blood libel. An example is the Iranian series Zahra’s Blue Eyes, produced for Sahar TV by a former official of Iran’s Ministry of Education, which depicts Israelis stealing the eyes of Palestinian children. Also in this vein, Iranian media excoriate the Baha’i religion as being created by the West to harm Islamic countries.
The Guards and Cyberspace
Since the 2010 Stuxnet computer attack on Iran’s uranium enrichment centrifuges, the Guards have strengthened their cybersecurity. Today, after channeling significant resources into cyber operations, they feel very comfortable in cyberspace. In 2013, a Guards general publicly crowed that Iran had the “fourth biggest cyber power among the world’s cyber armies.” The Guards recruit engineers for their cyber program to monitor social media and other outlets to prevent dissent. According to Freedom House's 2017 report, Iran ranked fourth-worst in internet freedom, after China, Syria, and Ethiopia. Iran has built both a defensive barrier against cyberattacks on critical infrastructure and sensitive information and offensive cyber capabilities. Interception, blocking, and breaking codes and communications have been integral to the craft of intelligence for centuries.
In the twentieth century, signals intelligence analysts and operators broke codes during wartime. In Britain, at Bletchley Park, codebreakers deciphered German military codes, while U.S. naval analysts broke the Japanese naval code. These efforts allowed Allied forces to anticipate the timing and strength of enemy attacks and created opportunities for offensive intelligence operations. One of the most significant signals intelligence coups of the twentieth century was the United States' breaking of the Soviet diplomatic code, which unmasked hundreds of Soviet agents and sympathizers in the United States.
To police the web, the Guards created a “cyber army” in 2008. It is staffed by approximately 2,400 personnel, including part-time independent and semi-independent hackers. Tehran has become increasingly adept at conducting cyber espionage and disruptive attacks against opponents at home and abroad, ranging from Iranian civil society organizations to government and commercial institutions in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. The Iranian cyber army conducts both external and domestic defensive operations.
External Operations
The Iranian cyber army targets Iran’s external enemies. Cyber operations enable Iranians to gather intelligence and retaliate against perceived enemies domestically and abroad. Operators sometimes deface websites; other times, they steal information or cripple critical sites. Targets include critical infrastructure and vulnerable points in corporate supply chains. Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Germany, Israel, and the United States have reported Iranian cyberattacks on government, military, or scientific institutions. Tehran also targets neighboring countries throughout the Middle East.
Cyber operators sometimes destroy data as they exit systems or linger within them. The Guards employ cyber operations to target critics at home and abroad, corporations, nongovernmental organizations, and national economic, defense, and diplomatic institutions. In 2012, Iranian hackers allegedly struck Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, Saudi Aramco, nearly obliterating its corporate information technology infrastructure. They also attacked the websites of JPMorgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Destructive Iranian cyberattacks compromised systems at the Sands Hotel and Casino in 2014, targeting the casino's owner, Sheldon Adelson.
On January 5, 2020, hackers claiming to act on behalf of Iran defaced the website of the U.S. Federal Depository Library. They posted a graphic image of a fist punching President Trump in the face. The message read, “This is a message from the Islamic Republic of Iran.” If Iran was responsible for the attack, it was likely a cyber response to the assassination of Major General Soleimani two days earlier.
Summary
Sea and air forces that operate alongside and sometimes in concert with the country’s conventional forces. Iran’s missile inventory and technological capabilities impress and concern some Western powers. The Guards also control the development of nuclear weapons. The Guards have their own Cyber Defense Command, which recruits and trains cyber warriors to spy on dissidents. The Guards undertake active measures to discredit their adversaries and expand Iran’s influence. Iran periodically invites Western intellectuals and activists to visit Iran and participate in conferences that promote anti-European and anti-American themes and foster homicidal anti-Semitism.
