Israel Hacked Iranian Prayer App to Push Military Defection Messages
Israeli operatives compromised BadeSaba, an Iranian prayer app with 5M+ installs, to broadcast defection appeals.
Israel pulled off a bold cyber operation by hacking BadeSaba, one of Iran's most popular prayer apps, and weaponizing it as a psychological warfare tool.
The app, which boasts more than 5 million installs on Google Play, was compromised to push notifications to potentially millions of Iranian phones on Saturday morning. The messages urged Iranian military personnel to defect.
It's a striking example of turning everyday mobile infrastructure into a battlefield. Prayer apps typically enjoy deep trust and high engagement from users — making BadeSaba an unusually effective delivery mechanism for the messages.
The operation highlights how consumer apps with massive install bases have become prime targets in state-level cyber campaigns. No word yet on Google's response or whether the app has been patched or pulled from the Play Store.