Raisi's Government Denies Hacking of Presidential Website; Hackers Claim to Have 'Confidential' Documents from 120 Servers

A hacking group claims to have hacked several websites related to the Islamic Republic's President and displayed the slogan 'Death to Khamenei Raisi' on them; however, the government of Ebrahim Raisi denies this. The hacking group 'Uprising for Overthrow,' which had previously hacked websites related to the Islamic Republic's Foreign Ministry, announced on Tuesday, June 8, that by hacking the servers of the presidential website, it published slogans against Islamic Republic officials and in favor of the leaders of the People's Mujahedin Organization. Following reports of the hacking of the presidential website, the Islamic Republic's government information website denied it on Tuesday, June 8, quoting the director general of public relations at the President's office, stating that a 'new version of the website' was 'unveiled' last week and that 'today, as part of the security upgrade project,' the site was 'temporarily taken offline.' According to this report, 'confidential' and 'top secret' documents have fallen into the hands of this hacking group. The hacking group claims to have placed images of Abolfazl Amirataei, a teenage protester who lost his life, on the hacked presidential website. The group also claims to have posted images of Ali Khamenei and Ebrahim Raisi, the leader and president of the Islamic Republic, marked in red, as well as images of the leaders of the People's Mujahedin Organization on the hacked website. This cyber group, which claims to have obtained information from 120 presidential servers, has published images of 'confidential' and 'very confidential' documents, including correspondence from senior government officials, on its Telegram channel. According to some of the published information, security agencies and responsible officials were caught off guard in their response to nationwide protests in the second half of the year 1401 (2022). Reports attributed to meetings held at the Tharallah Command Headquarters with Islamic Republic security officials to counter student protests in recent months are among other documents released by this hacking group. Voice of America cannot independently verify the authenticity of the published documents. Additionally, see: A hacking group took the Iranian Foreign Ministry's systems offline. In June of last year, the hacking group 'Uprising for Overthrow' hacked over '150 websites and systems' and 'five thousand surveillance cameras' of Tehran Municipality, displaying the slogan 'Death to Khamenei Raisi - Curse on Khomeini.' In September, Iranian domestic media reported that they had accessed a letter indicating that municipal managers were aware of the hacking of the systems a month prior. Based on a letter dated May 11, 1401, signed by Mohammad Reza Zareali, the former director general of financial affairs at Tehran Municipality, it was reported to the municipality's security that individuals outside the organization had gained access to the municipality's information network. A month after this letter, on June 12, Tehran Municipality announced that the municipality's system and urban systems had been hacked. Zareali was also dismissed on June 9, just three days before the announcement of the hacking of the municipality's systems. Last year, various systems and websites of the Islamic Republic, including sections related to energy distribution systems, live broadcasts of the Islamic Republic's state television, some buildings of the Iranian Judiciary's prison organization, and Tehran International Airport were hacked by opposing and protesting groups, and parts of the information contained in them were made public.