Iran Identifies the US and UK as Sources of Cyber Attacks on Several Domestic Newspapers

Iranian officials from the Ministry of Communications claim that the origin of the 'hackers' who hacked several Iranian newspapers on Saturday is the United States and the United Kingdom. In a statement released on Sunday, February 11, by Iranian news agencies including the state news agency IRNA, it was stated that the 'hackers' targeted several news websites in Iran, including the websites of the newspapers Qanoon, Arman, and Setareh Sobh. The Ministry of Communications of Iran also emphasized that the attacked websites have low security and are 'still at risk of hacker infiltration.' On Saturday evening, Qanoon newspaper announced that its website had been 'hacked' and 'the hackers began posting fake news on the site.' Following this action, the Qanoon website was inaccessible for several hours. Qanoon later reported that a similar incident occurred for the two newspapers Arman and Setareh Sobh, and 'a false news item that was published on the Qanoon site was similarly published on these newspapers' sites.' The news that the 'hackers' posted after accessing these newspapers' websites was the announcement of the death of Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. No individual or group has yet claimed responsibility for this action. Regarding this incident, the Ministry of Communications of Iran explained that the software company for the hacked websites operates more than 30 news websites in Iran, including the websites of the newspapers Shargh, Etemad, and Shahrevand. According to this announcement, the attacked websites 'had default and identical usernames and passwords provided by the supporting company.' In this context, the Tasnim news agency also quoted Gholamreza Jalali, head of Iran's Passive Defense Organization, stating that this organization 'still' does not have a precise assessment of the issue. Mr. Jalali reminded that news agency and media websites are among the sensitive centers in terms of passive defense and should have high security in the network domain. Reports about hackers attempting to infiltrate some Iranian websites come while in June 2016, there were also reports of several Iranian government websites being hacked, including the websites of the Statistical Center, the Registration of Deeds and Properties Organization, and several websites belonging to Iranian embassies. At that time, the Cyber Police claimed that these actions were carried out by 'three companies based in Saudi Arabia,' although later the Cyber Crime Investigation Center of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that the hacker of some government websites had been arrested. Iran itself has been recognized as responsible since 2012 for infiltrating several American banks, hacking a small dam near New York, and attempting to attack the accounts of officials in the Barack Obama administration. Recently, a report published by the Carnegie Endowment in the United States indicates that security agencies in Iran, like other security agencies around the world, have increasingly become skilled in cyber espionage and destructive attacks. These actions range from opponents of the Iranian government inside and outside the country, and civil institutions in Iran, to government, defense, commercial, and diplomatic organizations in the United States, Israel, Germany, and Saudi Arabia. This report, which focused on the destructive actions of the Iranian government in cyberspace, also points out that the Iranian government conducts its offensive operations in cyberspace under the guise of misleading public accounts to showcase its capabilities in this area while shirking responsibility for such actions.