Tehran: US preparing cyber-attacks on Iran's energy infrastructure
The U.S. plans to carry out cyber-attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure, stated the head of the Head of Iran's Civil Defense Organization, Gholam Reza Jalal, as quoted by the news agency Mehr.
According to the official, Iranian authorities came to this conclusion after analyzing public speeches of the US officials and publications in the American press. He noted that cyber-attack on the Iranian infrastructure became possible due to computerization of the country. He stressed that Iran's energy sector is the most vulnerable to such attacks.
In March, the U.S. authorities imposed sanctions on nine Iranian nationals and the Mabna Institute in connection with cyber-attacks, which the United States believes had been committed since 2013.
According to FBI, the Mabna Institute was "created in 2013 for the express purpose of illegally gaining access to non-Iranian scientific resources through computer intrusions."
Washington believes that the attackers were acting on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. These cyber-attacks, according to the American authorities, have affected dozens of companies around the world, hundreds of universities and servers of the U.S. government. The hackers also stole 31 terabytes of data from 144 universities in the United States and 176 higher education institutions in other countries, the US Department of Justice said.