Widespread cyberattack against national infrastructure thwarted, Iranian government claims

• Iran has thwarted an attack against its critical infrastructure
• The attack was “widespread and complex”
• It’s not confirmed who was behind the incident

Iran’s national infrastructure was hit with a “widespread and complex” cyberattack, which was repelled by the country’s cybersecurity experts, a senior official speaking to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-linked Tasnim News Agency confirmed (via The Record).

Although the incident wasn’t described in detail, the head of the Iranian government’s Telecommunication Infrastructure Company (TIC), Behzad Akbari, said;

“By God’s grace and the efforts of the security and technical teams of the Communications Infrastructure Company and the Ministry of Communications, yesterday one of the most widespread and complex cyber attacks against the country’s infrastructure was identified and preventive measures were taken,” said Akbari on X (Translated from Persian by Google).

Unconfirmed cause

Very little is known about the attack, nor about the Iranian security team’s success in stopping it – TechRadar Pro did reach out to the TIC, but has not yet received a reply.

This comes just a day after an explosion at the country’s largest port, Shahid Rajaei, killing at least 28 people and injuring 800 more, authorities report – although there’s no indication these two incidents are linked.

This isn’t the first time Iranian national infrastructure has come under attack. In 2023, Iranian petrol stations were targeted in a controlled cyberattack, causing havoc across the country and affecting around 70% of petrol stations around the nation.

The Iranian government attributed this incident to a cybergroup named ‘Predatory Sparrow’, which it says has ties to Israel.

As geopolitical tensions rise, national infrastructure continues to be the top target for state-backed threat actors and cybercriminals, especially given the critical nature of the services they provide, and the chaos created by downtime. The consequences for compromised telecommunications, transportation, energy, or water networks could be severe or even life-threatening, so cybersecurity is more critical than ever.

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Ellen has been writing for almost four years, with a focus on post-COVID policy whilst studying for BA Politics and International Relations at the University of Cardiff, followed by an MA in Political Communication. Before joining TechRadar Pro as a Junior Writer, she worked for Future Publishing’s MVC content team, working with merchants and retailers to upload content.