Could Iranian hackers try to use AI to attack critical infrastructure in the U.S., Israel, and the Gulf States? The question has taken on new urgency as Iran finds itself in open military conflict with the U.S. and Israel, and as signs of state-sponsored hacking campaigns using automated tools are becoming more. prominent. In November 2025, Anthropic reported that Chinese state-sponsored hackers used the company’s AI to conduct a largely automated cyberattack against a group of technology companies and government agencies.
Experts told Fortune that while there is no public evidence Iran can yet orchestrate AI-powered cyber agents at the level Anthropic documented China doing late last year, the country remains one of the world’s most capable cyber powers outside the major players—the United States, China, and Russia.
“Threat actors from Iran have often targeted the United States and Israel over the years, perpetrating attacks against critical infrastructure; performing espionage, DDoS [distributed denial-of-service] attacks, influence campaigns, and attacks designed to wipe systems,” said Allie Mellen, a principal analyst at Forrester Research and author of the upcoming Code War: How Nations Hack, Spy, and Shape the Digital Battlefield.
