On the morning of 28 February 2026 a resident of Tehran opened a navigation app and found it showing his location 900 kilometers to the south. Soon after he lost all connectivity—Internet access and the ability to send messages. He did not know that minutes earlier a missile strike on a school in Minab had taken 165 lives, because all information channels were cut off for him. What millions of Iranians experienced that morning was not a scene from science fiction but a large-scale digital blackout, during which the country’s Internet traffic fell to 4% of normal levels and then almost to zero.
At the same time, more than 1,100 ships in the waters of the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Iran encountered GPS and Automatic Identification System (AIS) jamming and spoofing. On monitoring screens vessels appeared in false locations, for example at airports or near the Barakah nuclear power plant. The US Navy issued a broad warning to mariners, as jamming and spoofing of satellite signals became a real navigational safety threat. Experts later called the events one of the largest cyberwarfare operations, one that made no distinction between a military radar and a mother’s phone searching for her children.
This digital collapse began with a first wave of cyberattacks on Iranian official and news websites. A second, internal wave followed when the government itself shut down the Internet, the intranet, telephone networks and even blocked Starlink. The concurrence of external attacks and internal measures led to an almost complete severing of national communications, while compromised pages and fake messages in religious and media apps fully paralyzed the official information environment. Citizens heard the explosions of falling missiles but did not know where they had landed and could not contact their families to check whether they were alive.
To understand the scale of what happened, one must know the methods of electronic warfare: jamming, which fills frequencies with “noise”; spoofing, which sends false signals that make a device “think” it is somewhere else (this is what happened to the ships); and direct cyberattacks on digital networks and platforms. Unlike a bomb or a bullet, which can be aimed at a specific target, electronic interference cannot be directed at a single device without affecting all others within its coverage area.
From a military-technical standpoint the operation relied on advanced platforms and coordination to speed up the so-called “kill chain” — from detection to effect and assessment. A specialized electronic attack aircraft, the EA-18G Growler, and the F-35 acting as an advanced electronic sensor, worked in tandem. The F-35 built an accurate map of enemy radar emissions and transmitted data to jammer aircraft to “blind” those radars. This put the opponent’s defenses to a stark choice: increase emissions and risk being struck by anti-radiation missiles, or shut down radars and lose situational awareness.
It is important to note that Iran in this story is not only a victim but also an active participant. In preceding years Tehran repeatedly used GPS-jamming capabilities in the Persian Gulf waters, affecting hundreds of ships. Incidents such as tanker collisions and reduced traffic through the Strait of Hormuz show that Iran has turned this strategic waterway into a focal point of relatively low-cost but effective electronic warfare with serious economic and military consequences. Even before the current escalation, exercises by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and joint tests with Russia included elements of electronic warfare.
The outcome of this battle in the ether goes far beyond military losses. The main cost is humanitarian. The civilian population was deprived of warning systems and access to reliable information during the bombardment. Official media were either blinded or compromised. The electromagnetic spectrum has no borders, and when it becomes a battlefield, every civilian who relies on a digital signal becomes a potential collateral target. The only thing people can do in such a situation is wait for communications to be restored to learn the fate of their loved ones.
News commentary
- What is the intranet in Iran and what role does it play in the country’s information environment? - The National Information Network (NIN) is a state-controlled internal Internet infrastructure, often called the “intranet.” Its role is to filter content, restrict access to global platforms, strengthen national cybersecurity and enable Internet services to function if the country is cut off from the worldwide web. It is a key tool for managing the information space.
- What is the strategic and economic importance of the Strait of Hormuz for Iran and the region? - The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow maritime passage through which about 20–30% of global oil trade flows. For Iran it is a lever of strategic influence, a bargaining tool and a potential flashpoint. Control over the strait allows Tehran to affect global oil prices and the security of the Persian Gulf region.
- What are the powers and role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran’s military and political system? - The IRGC is an elite armed force reporting directly to the Supreme Leader. Its powers extend beyond those of the regular army: it is responsible for internal security, ideological control, intelligence, the missile program, and wields enormous economic influence through its foundations and corporations. The IRGC is the main defender of the Islamic regime and a key political actor.
- Where is the Barakah nuclear power plant located and why could mentioning it as a false ship location be particularly provocative? - The Barakah nuclear power plant is located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Its false mention in the context of Iran could be provocative because it is the first nuclear facility in the Arab Gulf built with South Korean assistance. This underscores a regional nuclear dynamic, tensions between Iran and its neighbors, and might indicate an attempt to manipulate information by linking Iran to a sensitive security facility of another state.
Full version: من يسيطر على هاتفك؟ ما تشعر به ولا تراه في الحرب بين أمريكا وإيران