U.S. military carried out secret cyberstrike on Iran to prevent it from interfering with shipping

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://beta.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-military-carried-out-secret-cyber-strike-on-iran-to-prevent-it-from-interfering-with-shipping/2019/08/28/36202a4e-c9db-11e9-a1fe-ca46e8d573c0_story.html

By Ellen Nakashima and Paul Sonne
The Washington Post
August 28, 2019

American military cyber forces in June knocked out a crucial database used by
Iran’s elite paramilitary force to target oil tankers and shipping traffic in
the Persian Gulf hours after that force shot down a U.S. surveillance drone,
according to U.S. officials.

The retaliatory strike by U.S. Cyber Command against the system used by the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was approved by President Trump, who that same
day called off a military airstrike against Iran because killing Iranians would
not be “proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone.”

U.S. Cyber Command did not address questions on the secret operation. “As a
matter of policy and for operational security, we do not discuss cyberspace
operations, intelligence, or planning,” Elissa Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman,
said in a statement.

The operation was first reported by the New York Times. It has not been publicly
acknowledged by the U.S. government.

[...]

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