Iran-linked hacker group Handala to pause cyberattacks on US, but not Israel

A hacker group that has claimed responsibility for Iranian cyberattacks against the United States says it will pause operations targeting the country following a ceasefire with the Trump administration.

The group, known as Handala, which the FBI believes operates as a front for Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, has previously taken credit for a cyberattack on Michigan-based medical technology company Stryker and for leaking old emails from FBI Director Kash Patel’s hacked Gmail account. In a statement posted on Telegram, Handala suggested that senior Iranian leadership had instructed it to stop publicly boasting about hacks targeting the United States, describing the move as linked to the ceasefire, Fox News reports. 

“According to the orders from the highest leadership of the Resistance Axis, we have currently postponed overt confrontation with the United States, but the world already knows our capability to penetrate and strike at the very core of American infrastructure,” the group said on Telegram.

However, the group stressed that it would continue its cyber operations against other adversaries, including Israel.

“The cyber war did not begin with the military conflict, and it will not end with any military ceasefire,” the post reads. “Handala, at full force, continues its cyber operations against the infrastructure of the Zionist regime.”

By Sabina Mammadli