In a striking example of how modern conflicts extend into cyberspace, when all eyes were on Tehran during military strikes by the United States and Israel, Tel Aviv allegedly hacked a popular Iranian prayer app to send out a defection appeal.
Notably, the app in question, BadeSaba Calendar, which assists Muslims in tracking prayer times, has been downloaded more than five million times from the Google Play Store alone.
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During the cyberattack, millions of devices reportedly received notifications, urging Iranian military personnel to defect from the regime and join efforts to liberate the country. Written in Persian, the notifications included the message “help has arrived”. Many people also took to social media to share the notification screenshots.
At a time when tensions were escalating rapidly across the region, the hacking of the prayer app was only a part of the wider cyber campaign. According to media reports, many news sites, including the state-run IRNA, were also hijacked to post misleading content about the attacks and discredit the regime.
A message on the IRNA read, “A terrifying hour for the security forces of the Ayatollahs’ regime; the IRGC and the Basij have suffered a crippling blow.”
The above breach and cyberattack highlight how digital tools can be weaponised in psychological operations alongside conventional military actions.
The BadeSaba Calendar app was deeply embedded in users’ daily routines. The unexpected notifications on the morning of February 28 coincided with the joint US-Israeli airstrikes on Iranian targets. The compromised notifications included prompts such as “Help has arrived”, “lay down your weapons” and appeals encouraging members of Iran’s security forces to defect or join “liberation forces.” These messages were disseminated through the app’s trusted notification system, suggesting access to its backend infrastructure.
Additionally, it occurred amid widespread Internet disruptions across Iran, making independent verification of the incident more challenging. Cybersecurity analysts have also pointed out that using a religious app maximises psychological impact. Many Iranians check the app multiple times a day, so the unexpected messages spread rapidly across devices.
Neither the Israeli Government nor the Iranian authorities have issued any statement confirming the cyberattack. However, multiple tech outlets have attributed the breach to Israel’s advanced cyber capabilities, framing it as part of a broader campaign to build digital pressure, undermine morale of the Iranian forces and sow dissent.
As cyber observers report additional hacks targeting news websites and government services in Iran, such activities illustrate how cyber warfare has become an integral component of modern geopolitical confrontations, blurring the lines between information, psychology and kinetic military strategies.
