Dustman wipes data in Bahrain. Disinformation from Tehran. US alerts warn of Iranian cyber threat. Lazarus Group ups its game.

Citing a report by Saudi Arabia's National Cybersecurity Authority, multiple sources report that "Dustman," a destructive Iranian cyber campaign, has hit Bapco, Bahrain's national oil company. ZDNet outlines the malware as a successor to earlier Iranian wiper campaigns, notably Shamoon. Yahoo News points out that the cyberattack hit on December 29th, 2019, the same day the US retaliated for the death of an American contractor in a rocket attack with airstrikes against Iranian proxies in Syria and Iraq.

Twitter has also suspended two accounts it found impersonating journalists, the Daily Beast reports. The accounts were disseminating "Iranian propaganda," although as usual it's difficult in such cases to distinguish a state-run operation from a hacktivist demonstration. The Telegraph argues that Iran has developed a significant online disinformation capability over recent years. While calling it a capability that rivals Russia's is surely overstated, Tehran's operators aren't contemptible.

As both the US and Iran appear to have backed away from kinetic combat, the New York Times predicts that cyber operations will become more attractive. CNN summarizes the cautions US agencies, notably the FBI and CISA, have issued concerning possible Iranian cyberattacks, and the warnings have reached a spooked and skittish audience. Consider this week's incident in Las Vegas, where local speculation turned quickly to Iran.

Kaspersky has been tracking the Lazarus Group's AppleJeus campaign, and concludes that North Korea is becoming more careful, more sophisticated, and more focused on the cryptocurrency sector as Pyongyang continues its policy of addressing financial shortfalls through cybercrime.