Iran is yet again facing a cyberattack by an unknown threat actor. Last year, multiple instances of Iran being the prime target of hackers worldwide. A user under the alias KromSec has posted Iran’s National Standards Organization database on a dark web forum.
The data consisted of sensitive information about government officials, including but not limited to names, email addresses, system information, email IDs of government officials, and so forth.
The Iran National Standards Organization (INSO) is the country’s apex organization responsible for developing, promoting, and coordinating standards in a wide range of industries and fields, including industrial products, services, processes, and food and agricultural products.
INSO also works to promote the adoption and implementation of international standards in Iran and to represent the country in international standards-related organizations and activities. It is affiliated with the Iran Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Trade.
Iran and cyber attacks
Iran, on the contrary, has been condemned by the neighboring governments for launching cyberattacks, and many have retaliated against them by attacking Iran’s infrastructure and judicial system. In September 2022, Albania blamed Iran for a series of cyberattacks, which saw computer systems used by its state police taken down.
The government in Tehran denied involvement in either incident. The Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations said it rejected “the baseless accusations of the US and the UK against the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding an alleged cyberattack on Albania.”
Iran has exchanged multiple bows with threat actors in the last decade alone.
Among them, the most notable examples include the Stuxnet worm in 2010, the Shamoon malware in 2012, the Targeted attack on Behnam/Industry control system in 2016, Operation Cleaver in 2014, and many more.