Last year’s revelations regarding information operations campaigns run by Iranian actors revealed the tip of a largely misunderstood iceberg. This talk retraces for the first time a history of Iranian information operations, since early campaigns conducted circa 2011 to contemporary efforts, linking together operations previously seen as disjointed efforts. It surveys the evolution of techniques and targets, mapping the global scale of Iranian efforts in this space.
It demonstrates that Iran is in fact a leading, persistent and sophisticated threat actor in the information operations space, with its own tradecraft leveraging social media for elaborate social engineering and alongside cyber operations. Compared to actors such as Russia, Iran is both early in its adoption of these deceptive techniques and today leading in volume and persistence.
An in-depth understanding of its tradecraft and scope is critical for securing the digital public sphere against a threat actor too often underestimated in this space, and more concerned with continuing deception through volume, organization and redundancy than with hiding traces or maintaining persistence.