The number of Iranian cyberattacks against Israel has tripled over the past year, according to the director general of Israel’s National Cyber Directorate. In an interview with the German newspaper Die Welt, Yossi Karadi said Israeli authorities registered approximately 4,800 hostile cyber incidents in June 2026, compared with around 1,600 in the same month of 2025, when Israeli military operations against Iran were underway. The surge coincides with what Iranian state media terms the “Ramadan war,” the latest phase of the US-Israeli offensive against Iran that began earlier this year.

Viewed from Tel Aviv, the attacks represent a broadening campaign by Iranian state-linked groups and proxies. Karadi stated that the intrusions targeted systems used by critical infrastructure, central government organisations, small and medium-sized enterprises, and the general public, singling out law practices and accounting firms as among the smaller entities hit. While he claimed that all attacks on critical infrastructure had so far been repelled, he noted that companies with weaker defences often had their computer systems completely wiped. “Unlike in the kinetic realm, there’s no ceasefire in cyberspace,” Karadi said, adding that some groups were “very skilled.”

Iranian officials have consistently denied conducting hacking campaigns against other states, while reporting cyberattacks on their own systems. Iranian media, citing the same interview, framed the Israeli claims as unsubstantiated allegations by the “Zionist regime” and recalled that during the earlier 12-day war, Iran had used hacked urban cameras to guide missile strikes against targets such as the Weizmann Institute of Science. Russian reporting on the interview noted that Karadi said Israeli authorities had seen no evidence of “organised and state-sponsored support from Russia” in the Iranian cyber operations, a point that underscores the complex web of attribution and alliance-watching surrounding the conflict.

Western security assessments have long warned that offensive cyber capabilities would escalate in parallel with conventional hostilities. In February 2026, Israel’s cyber directorate and the Shin Bet internal security service issued a public alert about hundreds of highly sophisticated attacks targeting government officials, security personnel, academics, and media figures. Karadi has previously emphasised that Israel is working to develop both offensive and defensive cyber tools, in part through deepened cooperation with the United States and a newly signed agreement to station a permanent cyber liaison in Germany. The dossier remains open: with no diplomatic track addressing the cyber dimension, the digital front is expected to remain active as long as the broader military confrontation continues.