Explainer: The Hackers Who Destroyed 35,000 Computers in One Afternoon

In August 2012, Iranian hackers wiped Saudi Arabia's national oil company so completely it had to buy every hard drive on the global market just to get back online — and that was *before* Iran built the cyber arsenal it has today. In 2010, a piece of malware so advanced it was called the most complex software ever written silently destroyed Iran's nuclear centrifuges from the inside — and Iran spent the next fifteen years making sure no one could ever do that to them again without paying a catastrophic price. What they built in response is now aimed at power grids, water systems, and financial networks across the United States and its allies. === Everything you need to understand Iran's cyber army and why it explains the war happening right now. === New to the conflict? Start here, then subscribe for daily briefings.