Cyber impact of conflict in the Middle East, and other cybersecurity news

The escalation in the Middle East over the past few weeks has highlighted the growing role of cyber warfare in modern conflicts. While military strikes are widely reported, in the background, cyber operations are more quietly taking place.

The impacts extend far beyond the regions directly involved in the conflict, with Europol spokesperson Jan Op Gen Oorth saying he expects to see more cyberattacks against ​European infrastructure and an increase in online fraud, exploiting the flurry of information ⁠circulating about the conflict online, Reuters reports.

Here are some of the reported cyber impacts of the conflict:

What comes next is unclear, though Adam Meyers, senior vice president of counter adversary operations with CrowdStrike, suggested to Reuters that the current cyber activity may precede more aggressive operations: "CrowdStrike is already seeing activity consistent with Iranian-aligned threat actors and hacktivist groups conducting reconnaissance and initiating DDoS attacks."

Earlier this year, the World Economic Forum's Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 highlighted the significant impact that geopolitical risk has on cybersecurity. The report found that 64% of organizations are accounting for geopolitically motivated cyberattacks such as disruption of critical infrastructure, sabotage or espionage.

Rapid developments in artificial intelligence (AI) are accelerating innovation across sectors. However, just as these capabilities are opening new possibilities for systems that benefit people, society and they environment, they also present cyber risks.

To help address this and improve transparency within the sector, big tech companies are sharing regular analyses of how bad actors are using AI tools for malicious purposes.

Here are some of the reported use cases of AI for cybercrime:

Moreover, a new report from INTERPOL found that AI-enhanced fraud is 4.5 times more profitable than traditional methods. Agentic AI systems, the report notes, can autonomously plan and execute complete fraud campaigns from reconnaissance to ransom demands.

"Enabled by artificial intelligence, low-cost digital tools and increased global criminal collaboration, we are witnessing the industrialization of fraud," INTERPOL Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza said in a statement.

The report was released during the Global Fraud Summit, which is being held in Vienna and was organized by INTERPOL and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

Portuguese officials' messaging accounts targeted: Portugal's national intelligence service has warned that hackers are running a global campaign to access WhatsApp and Signal accounts of government officials, diplomats and military personnel. The actors are tricking users into sharing passwords to access private chats. See how Signal responded to this incident below:

Customer data leaked in telecom hack: The criminal group behind a recent hack on Dutch telecom provider Odido has published customer information on the dark web. Personal data for around 6 million customers was stolen, including names, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, bank account numbers, birth dates and passport numbers.

Sweden warns energy sector to raise security: The nation's security agency warned the energy sector to heighten its defences following a recent cyberattack in Poland, though no specific threat exists for Swedish infrastructure. The alert aims to make Sweden a harder target, with authorities requesting upgraded security measures.

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