Slashdot Mirror
Iran's High Tech Copycat War Against the West: Drones and Cyberwar
An anonymous reader writes "Iran and its nuclear program seem to be getting all the headlines. Yet, Iran has found a way to respond to western cyber attacks such as Stuxnet, drone surveillance and targeted assassinations; they've decided to respond in kind. Iran has launched its own cyber attacks on U.S. banks via denial-of-service attacks. Iranian drones recently were used to spy on Israeli nuclear facilities. Cyberweapons were also used against Saudi oil facilities. The goal: to make sure the west, specifically the United States, knows that Iran does have the tools to strike back. While Iran does not have a world-class military like the United States, it does have the capabilities to cause damage if it wants to. With Iran taking to cyberspace and drones, it shows such technology is not just under the control of the U.S. Iran has been careful, though, not to escalate the conflict. The risk: what if the plan backfires and goes beyond its intended scope?"
> Iranian drones recently were used to spy on Israeli nuclear facilities
Hezbollah launched Iranian-built drones to provoke confrontation with Israel. The target was southern Israel and possibly the reactor at Dimona. This was a symbolic mission, all Israel's nukes are probably hidden at other places (eg. Ramat David) so it was more for "show" than "spying". Hezbollah would not have done this without their paymaster's (Iran) assent. My belief is that this raid was to try and distract from the fact that Hezbollah and Iran have both sent fighters into Syria to support the brutal repression of the Al Assad regime - and they are getting heat for it. Hezbollah poses as a party for the common man yet it has revealed itself as a mere puppet of Iran (not really news there) that is happy to send snipers to kill Syrian civilians going about their daily business.
So I believe the article summary is a little misleading. The drone was not on a spy mission, it seemed to be a propaganda mission really.
> While Iran does not have a world-class military like the United States, it does have the capabilities to cause damage if it wants to.
Iran can cause damage in the same way that a stubbed toe does. Annoying but relatively inconsequential. There was a report yesterday that even the air force of the United Arab Emirates can take out the air force of Iran. What would be painful for the US is a ground invasion (although there a contingency plans for this I don't believe that the US intends a ground invasion), and the economic shock where the price of oil goes up on jitters, again. Hmm, so oil companies and traders make more money and everyone else pays more - see a trend here? Fortunately Saudi Arabia (Iran's real arch-foe) would try and mitigate by pumping more oil to contain price rises, as it has done in the past to prevent too much pain to the West (not entirely altruistic, of course, too much pain and modern nuke plants make more sense than fossil fuel ones).