On February 11, 2018, the Information and Communications Technology Ministry of Iran issued a statement saying that cyberattacks had been carried out against several Iranian news websites on the night of February 10. The statement said that the websites were attacked from IP addresses located in the United States and the United Kingdom.
According to the official statement, hackers accessed the websites of the Iranian daily newspapers Ghanoon, Arman, and Setare Sobh on the night of February 10 and published false news reports on the websites.[1] The statement said that these websites remain vulnerable to attack due to security issues and may be targeted again. The statement included the names of 27 other news websites with similar security vulnerabilities.
Police spokesman Brigadier General Saeed Montazer-Al-Mahdi.A report on Securityboulevard.com said that not three but 30 Iranian news websites had been hacked on February 10, and that a false report saying that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had died had been posted on the hacked websites.[2] This cyberattack may have been timed to coincide with February 11, which was the 39th anniversary of the day when the Shah of Iran was overthrown and he was replaced by Ruhollah Khomeini.
Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali, head of Iran's Civil Defense Organization.Speaking to Iran's Tasnim News Agency, police spokesman Brigadier General Saeed Montazer-Al-Mahdi said that the Iranian Cyber Police, also known as FATA, were pursuing the issue of the cyberattacks.[3] Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali, head of Iran's Civil Defense Organization, also told Tasnim News Agency that the organization would investigate the issue and announce the results as soon as possible.[4]
[1] Tehrantimes.com, February 12, 2018. [2] Securityboulevard.com, February 13, 2018. [3] Tasnimnews.com, February 12, 2018. [4] Tehrantimes.com, February 12, 2018.