Iranian hackers vow ‘back to the Middle Ages’ water, power, oil attacks if Trump strikes power plants

The Iranian hacker group behind a massive wiper attack on a U.S. medical technology company and the breach of the FBI director’s personal email claimed today that they are poised to inflict water, electricity and oil attacks on the United States and its allies of a caliber to “send your lives back to the Middle Ages” if the U.S. hits Iran’s power grid.

“I can say tonight we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” Trump said in a primetime address Wednesday. “We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks; we’re going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong.”

Today, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

The Telegram post from Handala vowing retribution for strikes on energy infrastructure was timestamped several hours before Trump’s Easter morning threat.

Handala began by saying their post was “our final warning, but also the most crushing one.”

“If that gambling fool and his masters even dare to touch Iran’s energy infrastructure, the powerful commander of the Resistance Axis, they must prepare themselves for an irreparable catastrophe,” Handala claimed. “All water, electricity, and oil infrastructures in the host countries and those supporting the terrorists are under our complete surveillance and control. The slightest hostile action or foolishness against Iran will ignite our devastating wrath; a widespread and paralyzing cyberattack that will not only take your vital infrastructures offline, but also send your lives back to the Middle Ages and the era of camel riding.”

“Know that this is not just a warning, but a definite promise, rooted in years of preparation and the expertise of Handala’s soldiers; forces that are now more prepared and ruthless than ever, waiting for just one mistake from you,” they continued. “If you think you can strike at the security of Iran or the Resistance Axis without consequences, you are gravely mistaken.”

Handala added that those in the countries they target should “think about buying a camel and an oil lamp, because after our attacks, even the dream of electricity, water, and oil will be out of your reach.”

“Testing our patience comes at a very high price; this is a promise you will witness with your own eyes,” the hacking group concluded.

On March 27, Handala, APT IRAN and CyberAv3ngers — a trio of Iranian hacking groups with a track record of critical-infrastructure breaches — vowed to inflict “irreparable damages” on U.S. water infrastructure if water systems in Iran are threatened, APT IRAN said while announcing their alliance.

APT IRAN, which is closely linked to CyberAv3ngers and has previously focused on operational technology targets, detailed at the beginning of the war an attack aimed at manipulating agricultural sector control systems in an incident the Jordanian government said was intended to destroy a strategic wheat stockpile. The group also claimed to have breached Jordan’s Bank al Etihad as well as “the management systems of the solar project in the Aqaba Special Economic Zone.”

APT IRAN claims it recently stole 375 terabytes of sensitive information “including technical documentation from active military projects, confidential contracts, high-level personnel information and sensitive administrative emails” from Lockheed Martin, though it is unknown whether the defense giant has been breached. The hackers posted the alleged data for sale in a Russian- and English-language dark web marketplace and threatened Tuesday that “any government intervention, regardless of its nature, will be met with a proportionate response.”The group also recently claimed, without proof, that it was behind a deadly explosion at a Nebraska wood refining facility last July.

CyberAv3ngers is an Iranian cyber actor affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that has claimed multiple critical infrastructure attacks in the past several years, primarily against the energy and water sectors in the United Staes, Israel and elsewhere. A Telegram channel under the group’s name was recently created.

“Previous experience has shown that this warning is testable and incidents have occurred in the past for the water infrastructure of the United States,” APT IRAN’s post said. “Therefore, it is emphasized to refrain from threatening the water infrastructure of Iran.”

“If this warning is not heeded, irreparable damages will be inflicted on the other side,” it concluded.