Experiencing Massive Cyber Attack, Iran's Gas Station Network Paralyzes

Illustration. (Unsplash/Kevin Ku)

JAKARTA - A network of gas stations across Iran collapsed on Tuesday, reportedly due to a massive cyberattack, according to Iranian and Hebrew media sources.

Details are not clear, but speculation is that the attacks came from the United States, Israel, or various local Iranian anti-regime groups.

According to reports, messages posted on some of the hacked systems were addressed to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei directly, demanding to know 'where the gas is', referring to nationwide protests over gas shortages in the fall of 2019, citing The Jerusalem Post October 26 .

Last week, Iran said it carried out a complex and coordinated attack against US forces in Syria, using up to five armed drones to attack the Tanf garrison, a key strategic point near the Jordanian and Iraqi borders.

The attack was the latest in a series of such drone strikes against US forces.

In a press conference on Monday, Washington's Envoy to Iran Rob Malley referred to the potential upcoming United States action to deter Iranian aggression in the region, while refusing to hint at what action might be taken.

Washington is considered the largest offensive cyber power in the world by far but has often hesitated to use its offensive cyber capabilities against groups other than ISIS, fearing cyber attacks.

Under Donald Trump's administration, the US did hack certain Iranian intelligence sea-based operations to get the Islamic Republic to back down from attacking America's allies at sea.

Meanwhile, President Biden's administration has not done so to date, as it has focused on building goodwill towards a mutual return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Previously, Israel reportedly hacked Iran's Shahid Rajaee port on May 9, 2020, in retaliation for Iran's attempted cyber attack on Israel's water supply the previous month.

Iran also accused the Mossad, US and various European intelligence agencies of using the STUXNET virus to hack into the Natanz nuclear facility in 2009-2010.

"There is a high possibility that the hacker is a country or a nation, to achieve widespread hacking," former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) cyber official Harel Menashri told KAN radio on Tuesday.

However, the last few months have also seen amateur hackers cause huge problems for the United States and European powers with sophisticated ransomware and other attacks, with Khamenei's leadership having many local enemies from Iran's many minorities.

In August, Check Point Software Technologies issued a report stating that an Iranian dissident group named Indra executed a mega hack on Iran's train system on July 9, not Israel.

Check Point said Indra's hacking of Iran's rail system was "an example to governments around the world of how one group can create disruption to critical infrastructure."

What is unusual about these attacks is the non-state organizations inflicting damage on Iran's physical infrastructure at the nation-state level. While non-state groups are traditionally thought to lack the ability to do more than hack websites and data, this is an example of such groups causing massive damage in the real world.

Indra's tool destroys data without a direct way to recover it by using "wipers", or malware designed to wipe entire systems of critical infrastructure data, complicating the recovery process, locking users out of machines, changing passwords and changing wallpapers into specially crafted messages by attackers. .

To note, part of the attack included posting false messages about delays and cancellations of trains on display boards of terminals across Iran.