A major example of cyber warfare has come to light during the Iran-Israel war. According to reports, Iran’s popular religious mobile app Bade Saba Calendar was hacked in a cyber operation linked to Israel. Through this app, political messages were suddenly sent to the phones of millions of Iranian users. This incident happened at a time when America and Israel launched military attacks on Iran. According to the report, a few minutes after the attacks, messages started appearing on people’s phones in Iran that help has arrived from the Bada Saba app.
Bade Sabah Calendar is a popular Islamic app used in Iran. The app displays the Hijri calendar and reminds you of five prayer times a day – Fajr, Zuhr, Asr, Maghrib and Isha. Along with this, it also gives information about Azaan and Islamic festivals. It is said to have more than 5 million downloads on Google Play, so it is considered a very trusted app in Iran. Taking advantage of this trust, hackers used it for cyber-psychological campaigns.
⚠️ Update: #Iran has now been cut off from the world for 36 hours with metrics showing connectivity at 1% of ordinary levels.
The internet blackout imposed on Saturday morning continues to limit Iranians’ access to information as the war with the US and Israel widens regionally. pic.twitter.com/BhN7dDdExi
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) March 1, 2026
What messages did the hackers send?
According to the report of India Today, on the morning of 28 February, many notifications were sent in Persian language to lakhs of users. It was said in these that now the time has come for revenge and the security forces should stop action against innocent people. In one message the soldiers were asked to lay down their arms or join the forces of freedom. The purpose of these messages is said to be to create confusion and pressure among the Iranian army and security forces.
Cyber and military attacks together
According to experts, this attack was not limited to just one app. At the same time, many Iranian news organizations and websites were also targeted. Along with this, internet services were also affected in the country for about 36 hours, due to which it became difficult for people to confirm the correct information. Analysts say that when the Internet and media are disrupted, a message from a trusted app has a greater impact on people. This is the reason why religious apps like Bade Saba were selected for this operation.
