Cyber Attack Targets Sales Of Subsidized Gasoline, Iranian Authority Presumes Foreign Countries Did It

Illustration of a gas station in Borujerd, Iran. (Wikimedia Commons/Asadi s)

JAKARTA - A cyberattack disrupted Iran's subsidized gasoline sales network on Tuesday, causing long queues at gas stations in the country, just weeks before the anniversary of protests against fuel price hikes in 2019.

Iran says it is very wary of online attacks, which in the past have been blamed on arch-foes the United States and Israel. Meanwhile, the United States and other Western powers have accused Iran of trying to disrupt and break into their networks.

"Disruptions to gas station refueling systems in recent hours, caused by cyber attacks," state broadcaster IRIB said, citing Reuters Oct. 27.

"Technical experts are fixing the problem and soon the refueling process will return to normal."

The oil ministry said only sales with smart cards used for cheaper rationed gasoline were disrupted, with consumers still being able to buy fuel at higher prices, the ministry's SHANA news agency reported.

"This attack was probably carried out by a foreign country. It is too early to announce by which country and in what way it was carried out," Abolhassan Firouzabadi, secretary of Iran's Supreme Cyber Council, told state TV.

To note, this disruption comes ahead of the second anniversary of a fuel price hike in November 2019, which led to widespread street protests in which hundreds were reportedly killed in clashes with security forces.

Industry officials told state TV nearly half of gas stations had reopened as technicians rushed to activate manual settings after online functions were disabled by hackers.

Officials gave assurances there was no shortage of fuel, with the remaining gas stations set to reopen at midday on Wednesday.

As previously reported, Iran's gas station network suffered a massive cyber attack on Tuesday. Videos posted on social media show digital traces appearing to be hacked, with messages such as "Khamenei, where is our gasoline?", referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Reuters was unable to independently authenticate the video but Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency confirmed that several signs had been hacked.