Iran accuses Israel of 'failed' cyber attack


The Times of Israel is liveblogging Monday’s events as they unfold.



Iran accuses Israel of ‘failed’ cyber attack

Iran accuses Israel of launching what it declared was a failed cyber attack against its communications systems.
“A regime whose record in using cyber weapons is clear from cases such as Stuxnet has tried this time to damage Iran’s communication infrastructure,” says Information Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi on his Twitter account.
He was referring to the Stuxnet virus, discovered in 2010 and believed to have been engineered by Israel and the United States, which damaged nuclear facilities in Iran.
“Thanks to vigilance of the technical teams, they returned empty-handed. We will follow up this hostile action through international forums,” Jahromi says.
His deputy, Hamid Fattahi, says technical teams had intercepted multiple attempts to infiltrate their systems early on Monday, and had been “strongly warded off.”
The Stuxnet virus was uncovered some eight years ago, and was widely reported to have been developed together by US and Israeli intelligence. It penetrated Iran’s rogue nuclear program, taking control and sabotaging parts of its enrichment processes by speeding up its centrifuges.