Iran: We Have Repelled Cyber Attacks from Israeli Company Golden Line

The Minister of Communications and Information Technology and the Chairman of the Board of Iran's Communications Infrastructure Company announced that new "cyber attacks" against Iran's communication infrastructure have been repelled. Hamid Fattahi, Chairman of the Board of the Communications Infrastructure Company, tweeted, hinting at Israel, that today "scattered attacks originating from a usurping regime" "began against some of Iran's communication infrastructure" and "were all repelled with strength." On the same day, according to the IRNA news agency, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, identified the internet company "Golden Line" as the source of the cyber attacks on Iran's communication network infrastructure on Monday morning and announced that legal action would be pursued in international forums through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Azari Jahromi stated that "this morning the attacks took a more serious form," saying, "These attacks were designed by an internet company called Golden Line and targeted the country's communication network infrastructure, particularly towards the mobile communication network." Golden Line is based in "Ramat Gan" northeast of Tel Aviv and reportedly holds 64% and 78% of the golden internet share on the NASDAQ stock market and is active in fixed-line, mobile, broadband, and television markets. The Minister of Communications wrote early Monday on Twitter: "A regime with a history of using cyber weapons in cases like Stuxnet attempted to damage Iran's communication infrastructure this time, but thanks to the vigilance of technical teams, they returned empty-handed." Mr. Azari Jahromi emphasized that "we will pursue this hostile act through international forums." Israeli officials, to whom the Iranian officials' implicit accusations may be directed, have not yet responded to these allegations. Before these announcements, the Israeli newspaper Times of Israel referenced a report on the state television of that country on October 31, stating that Iran's strategic infrastructure networks had recently been targeted by a virus attack similar to Stuxnet. The report mentioned that this malware is "more aggressive, advanced, and complex" than Stuxnet. Previously, Iranian and Israeli officials have accused each other of cyber attacks. Meanwhile, the American newspaper New York Times reported in June 2012 that delays in Iran's nuclear program were the result of a joint Israeli-American cyber attack, and the Stuxnet malware had impacted uranium enrichment processes in Iran. According to this report, Stuxnet was first tested in Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor, which had turned into a "laboratory" for ensuring the functionality of the Stuxnet malware for two years. In the same vein, in October 2016, the Associated Press reported that ongoing fires in Iran's petrochemical facilities had raised suspicions of hacking and software sabotage in Iran. Additionally, several government organizations, including Iran's Central Bank and Ministry of Oil, have faced cyber attacks in recent years. In contrast, Nadav Padan, head of command, control, computer, communications, and information at the Israeli army's cyber center, previously stated that Iran, in cooperation with affiliates such as the Hezbollah group in Lebanon, has conducted attacks against Israel. The United States has also accused Iran several times of cyber attacks against the accounts of U.S. State Department officials and other government structures, but the Islamic Republic has denied these allegations. Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday, August 8, that the U.S. was concerned about cyber attacks from Iranian hackers coinciding with its exit from the nuclear agreement, and now, with the re-imposition of the first phase of sanctions against the Iranian government, this concern has increased.