Digital Fog of War: Operation “Lion’s Roar” Plunges Iran into Historic 4% Connectivity Blackout

Against the backdrop of kinetic airstrikes targeting IRGC facilities in Iran, a secondary, digital front has simultaneously erupted. On Saturday, February 28, the nation was plunged into near-absolute informational isolation. A colossal cyberoffensive, running in tandem with Operation “Lion’s Roar,” has been classified by international observers as the most formidable in the region’s history.

Critical infrastructure, state-sanctioned news portals, and encrypted communication networks were rendered entirely inoperative. The Iranian leadership found itself marooned within a profound communicative void, severed both domestically and internationally. The watchdog organization NetBlocks registered a catastrophic plunge in internet traffic—plummeting to a mere four percent of its customary volume—a metric that unequivocally signifies the de facto obliteration of the national grid.

The onslaught also decimated state-affiliated informational apparatuses. The IRNA news agency’s domain vanished offline for a protracted duration, while the Tasnim platform, widely associated with the IRGC, endured debilitating disruptions and systemic breaches. Its pages were subsequently defaced with subversive materials fiercely criticizing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Informants within Western intelligence circles articulated that the obliteration of the IRGC’s communicative architecture was strategically designed to paralyze the coordination of retaliatory maneuvers, effectively preempting the deployment of unmanned aerial vehicles and ballistic munitions. The cyber warfare divisions tasked with executing electronic operations were similarly neutralized in the crosshairs of this assault.

These tribulations extended far beyond the realm of news syndicates. In Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz, citizens reported widespread paralysis across localized applications and state-administered digital utilities. The genesis of this campaign actually traces back to January, when anonymous actors hijacked satellite transmissions to broadcast impassioned pleas for regime change.

Saturday’s multifaceted assault orchestrated a symphony of electronic warfare capabilities, encompassing the jamming of navigational and communicative arrays, alongside overwhelming DDoS bombardments and profound infiltrations into databases tethered to the energy and aviation sectors. The regime’s desperate pivot to its sequestered “national internet” proved utterly futile, as the internal intranet similarly buckled and collapsed under the immense pressure. Ultimately, at the zenith of an acute military crisis, Iran found itself entirely excised from the global digital expanse.