As Israeli and US forces launched joint preemptive airstrikes on Tehran, a sophisticated cyber-psychological operation unfolded simultaneously.<\/p>\n
According to a report by Wired Middle East, millions of Iranian citizens and military personnel were jolted awake not only by explosions but also by unauthorized push notifications<\/a> from a compromised mobile application.<\/p>\n The incident signaled a new escalation in nation-state cyber warfare, blending digital intrusion with kinetic military operations.<\/p>\n The primary vector for this digital offensive was the \u2018BadeSaba Calendar,\u2019 a popular prayer timing application with over 5 million downloads on the Google Play Store<\/a>.<\/p>\n As noted by\u00a0Wired story, shortly after the physical strikes began on Saturday morning, the app\u2019s notification system was hijacked<\/a> to broadcast messages of psychological warfare.<\/p>\n Starting at 9:52 AM local time, users received a burst of push notifications titled \u201cHelp is on the way\u201d.<\/p>\n Screenshots shared with\u00a0Wired Middle East revealed that these messages explicitly urged Iranian military members to abandon their posts and lay down their weapons in exchange for amnesty.<\/p>\n At 10:02 AM, a subsequent alert warned that \u201crepressive forces will pay for their cruel and merciless actions,\u201d while another message at 10:14 AM called on forces to join the \u201cliberation\u201d for a free Iran.\u200b<\/p>\n While the exact malware or exploitation technique<\/a> remains unidentified,\u00a0Wired Middle East highlighted analysis from cybersecurity experts who assess this as a highly coordinated nation-state operation rather than a standard cybercriminal attack.<\/p>\n Morey Haber, Chief Security Advisor at BeyondTrust, told the publication that an attack of this scale requires advanced planning.<\/p>\n The threat actors likely compromised the application\u2019s backend infrastructure well in advance, staging the notifications as triggered payloads perfectly timed to coincide with the kinetic airstrikes.\u200b<\/p>\n Currently, attribution remains unconfirmed, with no hacker organization or state entity officially claiming responsibility for the breach<\/a>.<\/p>\n Speaking to\u00a0Wired Middle East, Narges Keshavarznia, a digital rights researcher at the Miaan Group, stated that it is too early to determine whether the operation was carried out by Israeli intelligence or by anti-government Iranian hacktivist groups<\/a>.<\/p>\n Simultaneous to the app compromise, Iran experienced a severe digital blackout. As documented by\u00a0Wired Middle East, this is a familiar defensive or suppressive tactic used during periods of national crisis.<\/p>\n According to the internet monitoring tool NetBlocks cited in the report, national network traffic plummeted to just 4 percent of normal levels.<\/p>\n The measure limits civic engagement at a key moment for the country’s future after the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei in US and Israeli airstrikes. pic.twitter.com\/W4jDgds1Ty<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 NetBlocks (@netblocks) March 1, 2026<\/a>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\nPrayer App Hijacked During Military Strikes<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Hacked](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEj7dzZlrB8cWzti1ilwd1uLryhQnDTw_DW-7iiH5l3TvTCi-3Gu9SvpXHUYznlfeBmJR5LkDA1frb2jhSfYhKdHB7uVk4V_mCWlYobxDZIgLj0XC9nXdTFGQ4N3O_i983pY3yq8SIy7TFBkwXAeIFFTyAsfcwJdKSm8GuykLXmkutFusck1e_luSCN1hMc\/s1600\/Screenshot%25202026-03-02%2520105359%2520%25281%2529.webp?ssl=1\")
Severe Nationwide Internet Disruptions<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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![\"\u26a0\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/17.0.2\/72x72\/26a0.png?ssl=1\")
Update: #Iran<\/a>‘s internet blackout has now passed the 24-hour mark with national connectivity flatlining at 1% of ordinary levels.<\/p>\n