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Microsoft: Iran Accelerates Its Cyber Influence Operations Worldwide

The logo of American Microsoft on its pavilion at a world tech fair in Barcelona last year. (AFP)
The logo of American Microsoft on its pavilion at a world tech fair in Barcelona last year. (AFP)
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Microsoft: Iran Accelerates Its Cyber Influence Operations Worldwide

The logo of American Microsoft on its pavilion at a world tech fair in Barcelona last year. (AFP)
The logo of American Microsoft on its pavilion at a world tech fair in Barcelona last year. (AFP)

Microsoft warned that Iran is accelerating its cyber-enabled influence operations to go in tandem with its geopolitical goals worldwide.

“Iran continues to be a significant threat actor, and it is now supplementing its traditional cyberattacks with a new playbook, leveraging cyber-enabled influence operations (IO) to achieve its geopolitical aims,” a report published by the company on Tuesday revealed.

Microsoft has detected these efforts rapidly accelerating since June 2022.

Microsoft said it attributed 24 unique cyber-enabled influence operations to the Iranian government last year compared to just seven in 2021.

The report added that most of Iran’s cyber-enabled influence operations are being run by Emennet Pasargad – which is sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for attempts to undermine the integrity of the 2020 US Presidential Elections.

Though Iran’s techniques may have changed, its targets have not. These operations remain focused on Israel, prominent Iranian opposition figures and groups, and the Gulf countries, according to Microsoft.

“Iran directed nearly a quarter (23%) of its cyber operations against Israel between October of 2022 and March of 2023, with the United States, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia also bearing the brunt of these efforts.”

The goals of its cyber-enabled IO have included seeking to bolster Palestinian groups that are allied to Iran, fomenting unrest in Bahrain, and sowing panic and fear among Israeli citizens.

“Iran has also adopted cyber-enabled IO to undercut the momentum of nationwide protests by leaking information that aims to embarrass prominent regime opposition figures.”

Microsoft added that most of these operations have a predictable playbook, in which Iran uses a cyber persona to publicize and exaggerate a low-sophistication cyberattack, using the language of the target audience.

“New Iranian influence techniques include their use of SMS messaging and victim impersonation to enhance the effectiveness of their amplification”, the report added.

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Report: France, Germany, UK Willing to Reinstate Sanctions on Iran 

A woman walks next to Iranian national flags in a street in Tehran, Iran, 10 August 2025. (EPA)
A woman walks next to Iranian national flags in a street in Tehran, Iran, 10 August 2025. (EPA)
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Report: France, Germany, UK Willing to Reinstate Sanctions on Iran 

A woman walks next to Iranian national flags in a street in Tehran, Iran, 10 August 2025. (EPA)
A woman walks next to Iranian national flags in a street in Tehran, Iran, 10 August 2025. (EPA)

France, Germany and Britain have told the United Nations they are ready to reinstate sanctions on Iran if it does not return to negotiations with the international community over its nuclear program, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. 

The foreign ministers of the so-called E3 group wrote to the UN on Tuesday to raise the possibility of "snapback" sanctions unless Iran takes action, the report said, citing a letter seen by the newspaper. 

"We have made it clear that if Iran is not willing to reach a diplomatic solution before the end of August 2025, or does not seize the opportunity of an extension, E3 are prepared to trigger the snapback mechanism," the ministers said in the letter, according to the report. 

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The British, French and German governments did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. 

The three European countries, along with China and Russia, are the remaining parties to a 2015 nuclear deal reached with Iran - from which the United States withdrew in 2018 - that lifted sanctions on the Middle Eastern country in return for restrictions on its nuclear program. 

The E3's warning comes after "serious, frank and detailed" talks with Iran in Istanbul last month, the first face-to-face meeting since Israeli and US strikes on the country's nuclear sites in June. 

Iranian lawmaker Manouchehr Mottaki, who served as foreign minister from 2005 to 2010, said Iran's parliament "has its finger on the trigger to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)" if international sanctions were reimposed after any E3 invocation of the snapback mechanism. 

Mottaki told Iran's semi-official Defa Press that parliament would approve a bill to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal within 24 hours if the E3 invoked the snapback mechanism. 

During its 12-day war with Israel in June, Tehran said its lawmakers were preparing a bill that could push it towards exiting the treaty, ratified by Tehran in 1970. 

The treaty guarantees countries the right to pursue civilian nuclear power in return for requiring them to forego atomic weapons and cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.