Iran’s National Computer Emergency Response Team (Maher) reported a “large-scale” cyberattack on two government institutions in the Islamic Republic, according to Iranian media. Neither of the two official agencies were specified, but the halting confirmation appears to have come in the wake of widespread reports of the attack on social media.
Reports that TV7 has so far been unable to verify reports identifying the two main targets as Iran’s Ministry of Communications and Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, where extensive disruption of government services severely impacted the functioning of the national banking, customs, roads and ports sectors.
One of the affected sites is believed to be the port in Bandar Abbas, located on the Strait of Hormuz and home to the Iranian Navy’s largest base. This would mark the second such attack on the port since May, which was largely attributed to Israel; in response to an earlier attempted Iranian attack on water infrastructure in the Jewish State that was successfully thwarted. In addition, Jerusalem has identified Bandar Abbas as the site from which the Islamic Republic ships weapons to the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups for use against Israel.
According to Iranian media, Maher maintained the most recent attack was limited in scope to the aforementioned unnamed agencies, and that Tehran deliberately halted some services temporarily in order to conduct technical checks in response to having been warned over a potential assault.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency cited an official who claimed that no significant damage had been inflicted, and that the country has overcome far greater sabotage in the past.
This was disputed by Radio Farda, the Iranian branch of the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast service, which reported that the port and Iranian banking systems were badly affected.
There has yet to be any claims of responsibility for the attack, and Iran has not named any states or individuals suspected of involvement.