If I were advising the newly appointed Supreme Leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, I’d suggest that he avoid texting in the days ahead. Or really, any kind of personal tech—tablets, laptops, and so on. Also using the fridge—keep an eye out for “smart” features. Riding in a car manufactured in the past 15 years or so is risky, especially in the vicinity of traffic cameras. Or going outside at all. Or being inside, if in the presence of anything that collects data. Every exposure to one of the sensors that now saturate our world adds to the chances that his specific location at a given time will become known to Israeli or American targeters.
Full-on paranoia has never been more justified than for Iran’s new hard-line top man. Mojtaba’s father and predecessor met his end in an Israeli air strike just over a week ago, as have numerous other senior leaders of the Islamic Republic since the hostilities commenced. The ability of the Israeli and U.S. militaries to target specific people on the battlefield and kill them has entered a kind of golden age, enabled by the same digital revolution that makes possible all of the non-murderous aspects of the new world emerging around us.
