‘Wait for death:’ Inside Iran’s psychological war against its enemies | CNN

“You must report immediately in case of any security incident,” read a text message sent to phones in the United Arab Emirates from “MOI” during the Iran war. But the country’s Ministry of Interior never sent such an alert. It later cautioned residents against acting on the “fake” message. In a country that bore the brunt of Iranian attacks as Tehran retaliated against Israel and the United States, authorities say the nation also faced barrages of a more insidious nature. The UAE had already noticed a sharp spike in cyberattacks weeks before the war, Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, the head of cybersecurity for the UAE Government, told state media last month. In the early days of the war, he said, cyber-attacks from Iranian proxies grew to 500,000 a day, mostly targeting critical infrastructure “After the (war began) the internet was cut (in Iran) yet their proxies continued (attacking us) from… outside of Iran,” he said. “Many people received phishing emails asking people to click on links… which began as data gathering and then transformed to become destructive.” During the war, Iran and its proxies launched thousands of missiles and drones at as many as 12 American