International Hacktivists Are Cyberattacking Iran In Support of Widespread Protests

In an effort to oppose Iran's strict hijab laws, Anonymous and other international hacktivist organizations are waging a multipronged cyberattack on the country, according to a report by CNBC.

Numerous amateur hackers have banded together online to plan cyberattacks against Iranian authorities and institutions and to exchange advice on circumventing internet access restrictions in the country.

Widespread Protests

Internet connection has been severely constrained in Iran over the past few weeks after the death of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd Mahsa Amini sparked widespread protests in the nation.

Amini died in a Tehran hospital on September 16, under strange circumstances when Iran's "morality police detained her." She reportedly violated the nation's stringent Islamic dress code by wearing her headscarf too loosely.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, spoke in public for the first time about the protests on Monday, Oct.3. He supported the police and attributed the unrest to "foreign interference" from the United States and Israel.

The international hacktivist collective Anonymous claimed on September 25 to have gained access to the Iranian Parliament's database and taken personal information from legislators.

Another hacker outfit, Atlas Intelligence Group, claims to have used the "doxing" technique on the messaging platform Telegram to release the phone numbers and email addresses of Iranian authorities and celebrities.

According to Check Point, tracking Iranian hacktivists' activities, it also attempted to sell location data on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a division of Iran's armed forces.

Anonymous-affiliated groups assert to have hacked the Iranian president, central bank, and state media in addition to disclosing information reportedly taken from government ministries, agencies, departments, and even a university.

Confirming the Hacks

Although it is challenging to confirm the hackers' claims, cybersecurity experts confirmed that they had observed multiple indications of Iranian disruption caused by vigilante hackers.

According to CNBC, hackers are using a DDoS attack to saturate a website with a lot of traffic and render it unavailable.

Emiel Haeghebaert, a threat intelligence analyst at the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, confirmed to CNBC that several of the services that were allegedly impacted had been offline at various points and, in some circumstances, remain unavailable.

He added that these DDoS and doxing activities might increase the pressure on the Iranian government to undertake policy adjustments.

Haeghebaert stated that Anonymous' involvement was "consistent with activity" that had previously been attributed to the group's affiliates. Earlier this year, in retaliation for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, Anonymous conducted several cyberattacks against Russian targets.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla