Iran Claims Israel Behind Cyber Attacks On Oil Platforms

Iranian officials have claimed Israeli cyber attackers have hit communication networks on its offshore oil and gas platforms, according to a report.

Iran has been the focus of many cyber attack campaigns, including the most famous of all – that of Stuxnet, which disrupted the nation’s nuclear project and reportedly set it back by two years. It is believed the US and Israel worked on creating the Stuxnet worm before sending it into Iranian systems, hitting centrifuges used for uranium enrichment.

Iran crying foul on cyber attacks again

Flame, one of the most sophisticated pieces of surveillance malware ever seen, also targeted Iran. Again, the US and Israel were suspected of creating it.

Then in June, Iran claimed its nuclear facilities had been hit by a “massive cyber attack”, claiming the UK, as well as the US and Israel, were behind the hit.

This latest alleged attack also involved Israel and a number of others, Iran has claimed. According to Reuters, Mohammad Reza Golshani, head of information technology for the Iranian Offshore Oil Company, told Iran’s Mehr news agency attacks were “planned by the regime occupying Jerusalem (Israel) and a few other countries”.

“Currently telephone operations on the platforms and in the areas of Iran’s oil and gas operations in the Persian Gulf are normal and have no problems,” Golshani said. All threats were successfully defended against, he added.

Israeli officials have declined to comment.

Last week, Iran claimed its communications providers had been hit by cyber attackers, causing disruption to Internet access.

In September, reports suggested an Iranian group, calling themselves the Iranian DataCoders Security Team, hacked nearly 370 Israeli websites in response to the YouTube video  “Innocence of Muslims”, which was also blamed for anti-US protests in Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

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