Tensions rose new heights after Iran’s Supreme leader Ali Khamenei promising brutal vengeance for the death of their military general, Qasem Soleimani. He was being air attacked by a US drone when he disembarked a plane in Baghdad. This planned assassination of him led fears throughout the world of a potential World War 3.
Who’s Qasem Soleimani?
The second powerful person of Iran, Qasem Soleimani is the major general of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and was given Iran’s highest military honour Order of Zolfaghar medal. He was alleged for supplying explosives to attacks the US and Pentagon believe he was trying to kill US diplomats in Iran.
The rivalry is soo high that, Soleimani warned Trump in 2018 as, “I’m telling you, Mr Trump, the gambler, I’m telling you, know that we are close to you in that place you don’t think we are. You will start the war but we will end it.” Well, no one’s hoping this happens, but every feature that the internet tells us makes it believable.
The UK has already been active in knowing the status of what’s happening between them. Brits have a search rate of more than half million regarding Iran and others are making enough memes of potential World War 3!
With all that said, here’s what can happen in future;
Cyber – The Only Viable Option
Experts from Think Tanks believes Iran to retaliate hard. Considering the reduction of Iran’s nuclear and military capabilities, the nation may trial with Cyberattacks on US power grids and water systems initially. And if heated up, Iran may request allies to join their attack.
Iran’s worm weapon Stuxnet was developed as a part of US-Israeli Intelligence Operation and was developed enough to sneak it across several units of other governments to spy on. This malware is capable of stealing data and even erasing all of it!
Ever since that, Iran’s been actively developing it’s Cyber attacking models by allotting enough resources for it. They’ve developed their own techniques to infect systems remotely. After Stuxnet, data wipers like Shamoon and Stone Drill have been utilized to disrupt systems of rival Middle-East nations. One such prominent attack to note was done on Saudi Aramco’s computers, affecting over 30,000 computers!
While Iran’s just doing all of such against nearby nations, we expect this to happen to the US now too. Iran’s deployment of malware could be the beginning, but the nation will surely try something dramatic and powerful for their chief’s death. A start of this has already happened, with Iran attacking the US’s dormant government website (Federal Depositary Library Program) and defacing it.
Imagine what happens if Iran activates all its Cyber groups and malware. The nation may not compete with the US in terms of military, but on Cyber, as it’s the only feasible path. The world including us awaits Iran’s response now.
