Iran president says cyberattack means creating ‘disorder’

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — IranianThe president says a cyberattack that has shut down gas stations across the country is aimed at “infuriating people by creating disorder and mayhem”.

Ebrahim Raisi’s comments, the first since Tuesday’s attack, did not blame anyone specifically for the incident.

However, he suggested that anti-Iranian forces were behind the cyberattack.

“A serious preparation should be made on the cyber warfare area, and relevant institutions should not allow the enemy to pursue their sinister goals, but should make people’s lives a problem,” he said.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack that began on Tuesday, but it bears similarities to other months that seem to be directly defiant. IranianSupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the country’s economy is crushed under American sanctions.

THIS IS A LAST NEWS UPDATE. The previous story of the AP is below.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – A cyberattack Iranian A senior official said some of them were still facing problems Wednesday, affecting all of the Islamic Republic’s 4,300 gas stations.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack that began on Tuesday, but it bears similarities to other months that seem to be directly defiant. IranianSupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the country’s economy is crushed under American sanctions.

Abolhassan Firouzabadi, secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, linked the attack to another targeted attack. IranianComments on the rail system reported by the state-owned IRNA news agency in July.

“Like an attack on the railway system before, there is a possibility that the attack was made from abroad,” Firouzabadi said.

He added that the investigation into the incident is continuing.

On Wednesday morning, IRNA quoted another official claiming 80% of the shares. IranianGas stations started to sell fuel again.

Tuesday’s attack rendered useless the government-issued electronic cards many Iranians use to purchase subsidized fuel at the pump. The semi-official ISNA news agency, which originally called the incident a cyberattack, said those trying to refuel through machines with a government-issued card instead received a message that read “cyberattack 64411”.

While ISNA does not acknowledge the importance of the number, it is linked to a hotline that runs through Khamenei’s office and deals with questions about Islamic law. ISNA later removed its reports, claiming that it had also been hacked. Such hacking allegations can come quickly when Iranian organizations publish news that angers the theocracy.

Farsi satellite channels abroad broadcast videos that appeared to have been shot by drivers in Isfahan, a major Iranian city, and there on electronic billboards the words read: “Hamenei! Where is our gas?” Another said, “Free gas at the Camaran gas station,” referring to the home of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The use of the number “64411” reflected the targeted attack in July. Iranian‘s railway system also saw the number displayed. Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point later attributed the train attack to a group of hackers who named themselves Indra, after the Hindu god of war.

Indra has previously targeted companies in Syria, where President Bashar Assad holds power. Iranian‘ intervention in his country’s grinding war.

Cheap gasoline is practically considered a birthright. IranianDespite decades of economic hardship, it hosts the world’s fourth-largest crude oil reserves.

The subsidies allow Iranian drivers to buy regular gasoline at 15,000 riyals per liter. That’s 5 cents a liter, or about 20 cents a gallon. After a monthly quota of 60 liters, it costs 30,000 riyals per liter. That’s 10 cents a liter or 41 cents a gallon. According to the AAA, regular gasoline averages 89 cents a liter in the United States, or $3.38 per gallon.

In 2019, Iranian It faced days of mass protests in nearly 100 cities and towns due to rising gasoline prices. Security forces have arrested thousands of people, and Amnesty International says it believes 304 people were killed under pressure from the government. Tuesday’s cyberattack came in the same month as the gasoline protests of 2019 on the Iranian calendar.

The attack also took place on the birthday of the late Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who died of cancer in 1979, just before the Islamic Revolution.

Iranian It faced a number of cyberattacks in August, including one that leaked video of the abuses at the notorious Evin prison.

After the Stuxnet computer virus, believed to be a US-Israeli joint venture, disrupted thousands of Iranian centrifuges at the country’s nuclear facilities in the late 2000s, the country has disconnected most of its government infrastructure from the internet.

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