Pierluigi Paganini December 11, 2019

Iran telecommunications minister announced that the Islamic republic had recently thwarted a “highly organized cyber attack” targeting government infrastructure.

The Iranian telecommunications minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, announced today that the Islamic Republic had recently thwarted a “highly organized cyber attack” targeting its government infrastructure.

The news was reported by both the ISNA and Mehr news agencies, the Iranian minister defined the attack as “really massive” and attributed it to a nation-state actor.

“Recently, we faced a highly-organized and state-sponsored attack against the infrastructures of the electronic government and it was identified and repelled by the country’s security shield,” Azari Jahromi told reporters in a press conference in Tehran on Wednesday.

“[The threat] was successfully identified and repelled by the country’s cyber security shield,” declared the minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi,

“I can’t disclose any details right now,”

At the time, the minister did not disclose details about the attack and about the alleged foreign state that launched it, but announced that he plans to reveal more information later.

“I cannot say for now which country has conducted the attack.” “there will certainly be a report on it later,” he added.

According to the ISNA, authorities were “studying the extent of this cyber attack”. 

“In relevant remarks in October, Azari Jahromi said that his country’s home-grown cybersecurity wall helped Tehran to foil 33 million cyberattacks in the past year.” reported the FarsNews.

“Addressing the Munich Security Conference (MSC) Cyber Security Summit in Qatar, Azari Jahromi said his country’s cybersecurity project codenamed Digital Fortress (Dejfa) could deter 33 million cyberattacks in the past year.”

At the end of September, Iran ‘s oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, ordered companies operating in the energy sector to be on ‘full alert’ to the threat of “physical and cyber” attacks.

In early October, Iran announced it was fearing retaliation of Western countries that are accusing it to carry out physical and cyber attacks against their infrastructure and countries in the Middle East.

At the time, Iran’s oil ministry said that the Government of Washington has launched a full-scale economic war” against the Islamic republic.

Gholamreza Jalali, Iran’s Passive Defense Organization chief, announced that that “America has started its cyber war against Iran, without providing more details.

The news was reported by the ISNA news website on October 1, Jalali also added that Iran “decisively will resort to cyber defense.”

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Iran, hacking)

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