Israel’s security forces have so far this year thwarted 85 cyberattacks against citizens, including senior defense officials, politicians, academia, and the media, the Israel Security Agency stated on Thursday.

According to the ISA, the goal of the phishing attempts was to gather personal information, including home addresses, relationships, and frequented locations. The data was intended to be used by Iranian-backed terrorists to carry out attacks against high-profile Israelis.

Iranian operatives typically made contact via messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram, or email, using a personalized cover story for each target, aligned with their field of work to avoid raising suspicion.