It all started on Sunday of last week, July 26th. Iraqi militias under the control of Iran rained missiles down on critical oil and energy facilities in Saudi Arabia. In 72 hours the Iraqis launched a reported 70 rockets and drones.
By Tuesday July 28th, the Saudis had had enough. They joined us in attacking the Iranian-backed mini-armies.
Then, late Tuesday night, July 28th, Iran attempted what our military called a “surprise attack” on an American military base in Jordan. Every one of Tehran’s missiles was reportedly blown out of the sky by American anti-aircraft missiles.
So the morning of Wednesday, July 29, President Trump went on Fox TV swearing that, when it came to the Iranians, “We’ll be hitting them hard. They’re going to get a beating. We’re going to beat the fucking shit out of them.”
Later that night, at 8 pm, we began a two-hour attack against dozens of Iranian military targets, including Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal defense sites, and maritime infrastructure That’s what was going on on the surface of the Iran War.
But beneath the surface is a whole different battle, a conflict that we do not normally see. It’s cyberwar, otherwise known as gray-zone war and hybrid war.
On Wednesday, July 22, our government’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), our FBI, and four other government agencies updated advisory AA26-097A to an audience of insiders, the people who run America’s water systems, power grids, and other critical infrastructure.
The advisory warned that Iran is attacking us where it hurts the most: in our water, electricity, heating, and cooling systems. Iran has targeted infrastructure at the city and county level, where the equipment is underfunded. undermanned, and under-covered by the media.
Iran has targeted systems like boiler plants in county administrative offices, pumps, valves, traffic light systems, backup generators, fuel transfer systems, and water plants. And Iran has taken control of the displays used by the operators of this machinery. Why?
So the Iranians can reset these gizmos to operate above their safe levels and chew themselves apart or blow themselves up while the control panel reports that everything is fine. Iran has rigged enough of our systems to create chaos and start a panic whenever Iran hits the start button.
What’s more, the Iranians have built a massive cyber disinformation operation. They are using bots like Storm-2035 and Endless Mayfly not to mention phony news outlets like Liberty Front and Real Progressive Front to exaggerate their threat to our public utilities. To sow the seeds of a psychological victory. To sew fear so that if Iran takes control of even the tiniest sliver of the systems it has wormed its way into, our social cohesion could be seriously threatened. We could easily dissolve in panic.
How in the world did the Iranians get control of our most essential systems, the systems we rely on to keep us alive?
Over the course of the last 40 years, American infrastructure has been computerized. Sounds reassuringly modern.
But much of this computer equipment is over ten years old. Some still uses old-fashioned modems. The Iranian cyber attackers use those modems to invade via the internet. Especially to hit what are called programmable logic controllers. Almost all programmable logic controllers in the western world come from only three companies: Siemens in Germany, Schneider Electric in France, and Rockwell Automation in the United States. Hack into just one controller, let’s say a Siemens controller, and you have the keys to a whole slew of the world’s other Siemens controllers.
So when you’re thinking about the balance of power between Iran and the USA based on F-35s, aircraft carriers, missiles, and drones, don’t forget that thing at your fingertips–the Internet. Don’t forget Iran’s hackers and bots.
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About the author: Howard Bloom of the Howard Bloom Institute has been called the Einstein, Newton, Darwin, and Freud of the 21st century by Britain’s Channel 4 TV. Bloom’s new book is The Case of the Sexual Cosmos: Everything You Know About Nature is Wrong. Says Harvard’s Ellen Langer of The Case of the Sexual Cosmos, Bloom “argues that we are not savaging the earth as some would have it, but instead are growing the cosmos. A fascinating read.” One of Bloom’s eight previous books–Global Brain—was the subject of a symposium thrown by the Office of the Secretary of Defense including representatives from the State Department, the Energy Department, DARPA, IBM, and MIT. Bloom’s work has been published in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Psychology Today, and the Scientific American. Not to mention in scientific journals like Biosystems, New Ideas in Psychology, and PhysicaPlus. Bloom has appeared over 50 times on Iranian and Saudi TV. Says Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of Evolution’s End and The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, “I have finished Howard Bloom’s [first two] books, The Lucifer Principle and Global Brain, in that order, and am seriously awed, near overwhelmed by the magnitude of what he has done. I never expected to see, in any form, from any sector, such an accomplishment. I doubt there is a stronger intellect than Bloom’s on the planet.” For more, see http://howardbloom.net or http://howardbloom.institute
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References
Al Jazeera. “Saudi Arabia, US Carry Out Strikes on Iran-Backed Groups in Iraq.” July 29, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/29/saudi-arabia-us-carry-out-strikes-on-iran-backed-groups-in-iraq.
Citizen Lab. “Burned After Reading: Endless Mayfly’s Ephemeral Disinformation Campaign.” May 14, 2019. https://citizenlab.ca/research/burned-after-reading-endless-mayflys-ephemeral-disinformation-campaign/.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), et al. “Iranian-Affiliated Cyber Actors Exploit Programmable Logic Controllers Across US Critical Infrastructure.” Advisory AA26-097A. Original publication April 7, 2026; updated July 22, 2026. https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories(and related agency releases).
Meta. “Indicators of Compromise: Iran-Based Influence Operation Network Targeting United States, France, Israel, United Kingdom.” Threat Research (H2 2025 update referencing Endless Mayfly / Liberty Front Press networks). https://github.com/facebook/threat-research.
Reuters. “US, Saudis Attack Iran-Backed Groups in Iraq, Threatening to Intensify Conflict.” July 29, 2026. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-saudis-attack-iran-backed-groups-iraq-threatening-intensify-conflict-2026-07-29/.
TechCrunch. “US Government Says Iran-Linked Hackers Are Disrupting American Water and Energy Providers.” July 23, 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/23/us-government-says-iran-linked-hackers-are-disrupting-american-water-and-energy-providers/.
The New York Times. “Saudi Arabia’s Strikes in Iraq Mark Entry Into U.S.-Iran War.” July 29, 2026. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-us-iran-war.html.
The Times of Israel. “Trump Says US Will ‘Beat the F*cking Sh*t’ Out of Iran after Attack on Bases in Jordan.” July 29, 2026. https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-says-us-to-beat-the-fcking-sht-out-of-iran-after-attack-on-bases-in-jordan/.
Additional supporting coverage consulted: CBS News, People magazine, HuffPost, City A.M., IOActive, DeNexus, ComplianceHub.Wiki, Industrial Cyber, and related CISA/FBI partner statements on the July 22, 2026 update to AA26-097A.