[lovedswain]

> Compared to 90% of the other nation-states out there Iran is a _very_ competent cyber-actor.

.

> Given your exposure in this geography can you name any of it's neighbors

Saudi Arabia targetted at least Bezos' phone

[tptacek]

This is all pretty silly, isn't it? For the dollar figures involved in pulling off a highly-sophisticated attack (one that chains multiple zero days, including some in obscure products that imply the commissioning of vulnerabilities and not just their purchase off the black-market shelf as well as some in mainstream products with a real bidding interest), you're still talking about amounts of money so low that Cape Verde could be a _very_ competent cyber-actor if they wanted.

[lovedswain]

Seems we're both triggered by this emphasis on "_very_", or even use of that word at all. Obviously Iran has a variety of technical capabilities, such as evidenced by their national firewall and internal infrastructure, but are there any documented offensive campaigns successfully mounted against a foreign target?

The only attacks I know of are low brow phishing, DoS and web site defacements.

[drexlspivey]

Saudi Arabia bought the iphone exploit to hack Bezos from an Israeli company.

Fun fact, the text message with the malicious link was sent to Bezos by MBS himself

[ajcp]

> Again what is this based on

~170 nations that don't have the capability. Just because a 14-year old in Thailand can mount an attack doesn't mean Thailand's government or civil institutions have or utilize that capability. That makes them less than _very_ competent at it.

> Saudi Arabia targetted at least Bezos' phone

And a coup that was, likely using off-the-shelf software from an Italian company composed of engineers from two _extremely_ competent nation-states. That certainly shows how easy it is to acquire the capability, if not the competency. The KSA has been doing it for years with it's armed forces munitions and equipment.