Iran said to step up cyber-attacks on US officials

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-said-to-step-up-cyber-attacks-on-us-officials/

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF
November 5, 2015

Iranian regime hackers have reportedly been targeting US officials 
involved in formulating American policy toward Tehran.

The cyber warfare unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, an 
Iranian military force separate from the main and close to the regime’s 
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has engaged in a “flurry” of 
hacking efforts against the email and social-media accounts of senior 
officials in the Obama administration, The Wall Street Journal reported 
Wednesday.

That surge has included policymakers at the US State Department’s Bureau 
of Near Eastern Affairs and Bureau of Iranian Affairs, the report said, 
citing unnamed American officials. Academics and journalists linked to 
Iranian issues were also targeted.

The timing of the hacks may be linked to the October arrest in Iran of the 
Iranian-American dual citizen Siamak Namazi, an advocate of normalization, 
and to a broader battle analysts believe is taking place within the 
Iranian regime over fears by hardliners close to Khamenei that the nuclear 
deal reached with world powers in July could herald liberalization and a 
warming of ties with the West.

[...]

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