According to U.S. media, Washington launched a cyberattack on Iranian defense systems last week.
And he did so the same day that President Donald Trump last-minute lypped airstrikes against the Persian country in response to the downing of a U.S. drone.
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Without there being an independent confirmation of the effect of the attacks, Iran’s telecommunications minister, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, denied any damage to his infrastructure on Monday.
“The media is asking about the veracity of the alleged cyberattack on Iran. They have not carried out any successful attacks, although they are making a great effort,” he said, without referring directly to the U.S.
Last week’s alleged cyberattack was the preamble to a new sanctions package that the Trump administration announced monday against high-ranking figures from Iran, including the supreme leader of the Islamic republic, Ali Khamenei.
Tensions between the two countries have widened since Washington withdrew last year from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and re-established sanctions, triggering an economic collapse in the Arab country.
The cyberattack, experts say, was a rare form of response from the White House to the downing of one of its drones.
What was the cyberattack?
According to U.S. media reports, the computer attack was planned for several weeks in response to the mysterious bullbox explosions that took place in the Gulf of Oman and which the U.S. attributed to Iran (accusations Tehran denied).
The computer attack was aimed at weapons systems used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran, which shot down the U.S. drone.
According to The Washington Post and the AP news agency, cyber aggression weakened systems, while The New York Times indicated that he intended to disconnect them for a period of time.
Iran’s telecommunications minister, for his part, said his country “has been tacing cyberterrorism,” although he denied that the attacks had impacted his defense system.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announced last week the downing of the drone, they said, as a “clear message” that their “red line.”
While Tehran claims the drone was in Iranian airspace, the United States held was flying in an international area over the Strait of Hormuz.
Who made the cyberattacks?
U.S. media indicated that the computer attacks were carried out by the U.S. Cyber command, a u.S. Department of Defense force in charge of cybersecurity.
Created in 2009, the elite computer unit of the Armed Forces is allowed to conduct “clandestine military activities” in networks, under the auspices of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2018,
A report from The New York Times claimed that this group had infiltrated the Russian power grid in response to The Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 US election.
What did Trump say about cyberattacks?
The U.S. government has not commented on reports of cyberattacks.
Trump reported last Friday that he had suspended a conventional attack on Iran because he had been told it could lead to some 150 deaths.
On Saturday, he announced that he was open to talks with the Iranians and, according to the Reuters news agency, had previously sent a message, via Oman, to call for dialogue to Tehran.
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“If Iran wants to become a prosperous nation… I agree, but they’re never going to do it if they think they’ll have nuclear weapons in five or six years,” he wrote on Twitter.
Was there a response from Iran to cyberattacks?
On Saturday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned that Iran was stepping up its cyberattacks against the country.
Christopher Krebs, director of the Infrastructure Security and Cyber Security Agency, said that “malicious cyberactivity” was aimed at U.S. government industries and agencies and were organized by “regime actors” Iran and its representatives.”
According to U.S. media, Iran also attempted to hack into Washington’s naval systems.
How have U.S. sanctions affected Iran?
The sanctions announced on Monday, which will also involve the freezing of new funds in U.S. banks, add to others Trump had already taken against Iran.
Last year, the Us representative re-established a series of measures against Tehran that targeted the energy, transportation and finance sectors.
As a result, Iran suffered a drop in foreign investment and its oil exports were affected.
Since then, Iran has suffered a significant shortage of imported goods and products that are made from raw materials from abroad, especially baby diapers.
The fall in the value of the rial, the local currency, has also affected the cost of locally produced staple foods, such as meat and eggs, whose prices have skyrocketed.
