Pierluigi Paganini June 23, 2019

The United States launched a series of cyber attacks on Iran after the Iranian military has downed an American surveillance drone.

The military response to Iran, after the Iranian army has downed an American surveillance drone, started from the cyberspace.

US President Donald Trump first approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for downing a surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching them on Thursday night after a day of escalating tensions.

Trump ordered a retaliatory military strike against Iran after the drone shootdown but then called it off, saying the response wouldn’t be “proportionate” and instead pledged new sanctions on the country.

The tensions between Iran and the US is increasing after President Trump blamed Iran for the attacks on the oil tankers traveling through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has immediately denied that accusation.

Trump decided to temporary suspend the attacks to attempt negotiation and urge new sanctions against Iran, but at the same time, he secretly authorized US Cyber Command to carry out a retaliatory cyber attack on Iran.

“President Trump approved an offensive cyberstrike that disabled Iranian computer systems used to control rocket and missile launches, even as he backed away from a conventional military attack in response to its downing Thursday of an unmanned U.S. surveillance drone, according to people familiar with the matter.” reported The Washington Post.

“The cyberstrikes, launched Thursday night by personnel with U.S. Cyber Command, were in the works for weeks if not months, according to two of these people, who said the Pentagon proposed launching them after Iran’s alleged attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman earlier this month.”

The cyber attacks carried out by the US Cyber Command aimed at destroying computers systems that control rocket and missile launches.

According to Yahoo, two former intelligence officials confirmed that cyber attacks also hit spying group responsible for tracking ships in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

US defense did not confirm the reports, while the government of Tehran declared that it shot down the US surveillance drone on Thursday because it has violated Iranian airspace.

This isn’t the first time that the US opted out for a cyber attack to hit Iran, the Stuxnet virus first uncovered in 2010, was used to shut down nuclear facilities in Iran at least since 2005.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Information warfare, hacking)

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