34/69 Tuesday, January 20, 2026
On January 18, 2026, a major cyber incident occurred in Iran when a group of hacktivists successfully breached and took control of the Badr satellite signal, resulting in the disruption of several Iranian state television channels. The signal hijacking took place at approximately 9:30 p.m. local time and lasted for about 10 minutes, marking a serious breach of government communications security and causing widespread shock across the country.
During the takeover, viewers were shown content that sharply deviated from regular programming. The broadcast featured a video message from Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, an exiled opposition leader, calling on the public to join nationwide protests against the ruling regime and urging the military and security forces to side with demonstrators. The broadcast also included footage of protests and visuals conveying international solidarity, along with supportive messages from global leaders, aimed at boosting morale among protesters inside Iran.
At the same time, NetBlocks, a global internet monitoring organization, released technical insights indicating that internet connectivity across Iran remained in a critical state. Short-lived periods of partial connectivity were observed, during which heavy content filtering was still in place. These brief windows allowed some users limited access to services such as Google and messaging applications to report the situation externally, before connectivity levels dropped sharply again. This pattern highlights the government’s continued efforts to tightly control the flow of information amid the ongoing crisis.
