The incident comes as Iranian-backed Houthi fighters step up attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea.

Predatory Sparrow, which has been linked to an attack on an Iranian steel facility last year, reemerged after a long hiatus Monday.

Many of the 24 cyber-enabled Iranian influence operations Microsoft detected in 2022 were intended to further Iran's Mideast political agenda.

The July attacks involved multiple groups responsible for different aspects of the operation against Albania, researchers said.

The hackers linked to the Iranian government claimed to have attacked Albania for hosting an opposition group conference.

"We could not find any evidence that these tools were used previously, or attribute them to a specific threat actor," Check Point researchers said.