Categories: Cyber warfareIntelligenceMalwareSecurity

The mystery of a massive cyber attack on Iran

Winds of cyber war blow Iran, the political situation is becoming difficult to manage, exacerbating the tones of a psychological battle growing.

After the publishing of the news regarding the genesis of Stuxnet and Flame every actor of the conflict has increased the effort on cyber warfare especially on cyber defense fearing an imminent cyber attack of the enemy.

Iranian high officials have accused US, Israel and UK of planning a “massive cyber attack” against their government. The news has been diffused on Iranian state TV, discussing on Iran’s nuclear program.

The Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi declared that the cyber attack against Iran’s nuclear plants was planned after the failure of the negotiation on nuclear program and the diplomatic meetings have taken place in Moscow.

The official declared that attack was planned by the foreign coalition to mine the Iranian government destroying its critical infrastructures. It’s not clear which are the source of these information but the Iranian Government has declared that it is ready to fight the incoming cyber threat.

Moslehi declared:

“They still seek to carry out the plan, but we have taken necessary measures,”

The Press TV resumed the events highlighting the commitment of the President Obama in the operation Olympic Games and also the collaboration US-Israel hypothesized by Washington Post.

But the big questions is:

Which is the attack to which Moslehi refers?

Is it Flame or a new incoming wave of cyber attacks?

Is the declaration of the minister another act of Iranian propaganda?

All in all, the Iranian CERT was ready to isolate the newly discovered malware.

That is still a mystery!

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.