#1 Trusted Cybersecurity News Platform Followed by 4.50+ million
The Hacker News Logo
Get the Free Newsletter
SaaS Security

Iranian Hackers | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Iran still on target of 'Mahdi' malware after detection

Iran still on target of 'Mahdi' malware after detection

Sep 03, 2012
In JULY Kaspersky Lab and Seculert revealed the presence of a new cyber-espionage weapon known targeting users in the Middle East. Despite the recent uncovering of the 'Madhi' malware that has infected several hundred computers in the Middle East, researchers say the virus is continuing to spread. The malware, known as 'Mahdi' or 'Madi', was originally discovered by Seculert. In addition to stealing data from infected Windows computers, it is also capable of monitoring email and instant messages, recording audio, capturing keystrokes and taking screenshots of victims' computers. Working together, researchers at Seculert and Kaspersky sinkholed the malware's command and control servers and monitored the campaign. What they found was a targeted attack that impacted more than 800 victims in Iran, Israel and other countries from around the globe. Israeli security company Seculert said it had identified about 150 new victims over the past six weeks as deve
Malware Attack on 2nd Largest Liquefied Natural Gas Producer

Malware Attack on 2nd Largest Liquefied Natural Gas Producer

Aug 31, 2012
Reports have surfaced that liquified natural gas (LNG) producer RasGas , based in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar, has been struck by an unidentified virus, this time shutting down its website and email servers. The malware, however, did not affect the company's operational computers that control the production and delivery of gas, an official of the Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas company. The attack reportedly began Aug. 27. The RasGas website was still unavailable on Thursday, three days after the attack. For the second time in two weeks a virus outbreak has been reported at an energy company in that region. Earlier this week the Saudi Aramco oil company confirmed that its network was hit by a virus two weeks ago, shutting down 30,000 workstations. Neither company identified the virus, but in at least one of the cases it is believed to be malware known as "Shamoon." A joint venture between Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil, RasGas exports about 36.3 million tons of liq
Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Making Sense of Operational Technology Attacks: The Past, Present, and Future

Mar 21, 2024Operational Technology / SCADA Security
When you read reports about cyber-attacks affecting operational technology (OT), it's easy to get caught up in the hype and assume every single one is sophisticated. But are OT environments all over the world really besieged by a constant barrage of complex cyber-attacks? Answering that would require breaking down the different types of OT cyber-attacks and then looking back on all the historical attacks to see how those types compare.  The Types of OT Cyber-Attacks Over the past few decades, there has been a growing awareness of the need for improved cybersecurity practices in IT's lesser-known counterpart, OT. In fact, the lines of what constitutes a cyber-attack on OT have never been well defined, and if anything, they have further blurred over time. Therefore, we'd like to begin this post with a discussion around the ways in which cyber-attacks can either target or just simply impact OT, and why it might be important for us to make the distinction going forward. Figure 1 The Pu
Kaspersky Labs uncover 'Gauss' Espionage Malware hits Middle East banks

Kaspersky Labs uncover 'Gauss' Espionage Malware hits Middle East banks

Aug 10, 2012
A new cyber surveillance virus has been found in the Middle East that can spy on banking transactions and steal login and passwords, according Kaspersky Lab , a leading computer security firm. After Stuxnet, Duqu, and Flame, this one seems to mainly spy on computer users in Lebanon. It's been dubbed Gauss (although Germanic-linguistic purists will no doubt be complaining that it should be written GauĂź). Gauss is a complex cyber-espionage toolkit, highly modular and supports new functions which can be deployed remotely by the operators in the form of plugins. The currently known plugins perform the following functions: Intercept browser cookies and passwords. Harvest and send system configuration data to attackers. Infect USB sticks with a data stealing module. List the content of the system drives and folders Steal credentials for various banking systems in the Middle East. Hijack account information for social network, email and IM accounts. The researchers at Russia-based Ka
cyber security

Automated remediation solutions are crucial for security

websiteWing SecurityShadow IT / SaaS Security
Especially when it comes to securing employees' SaaS usage, don't settle for a longer to-do list. Auto-remediation is key to achieving SaaS security.
Iranian nuclear program hit by AC/DC virus

Iranian nuclear program hit by AC/DC virus

Jul 24, 2012
A scientist working at the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran said computer systems have been hit by a cyber-attack which forced them to play AC/DC's Thunderstruck at full volume in the middle of the night. The attack came to light after a researcher at security firm F-Secure received a string of emails from a Iran's atomic energy organisation." I am writing you to inform you that our nuclear program has once again been compromised and attacked by a new worm with exploits which have shut down our automation network at Natanz and another facility Fordo near Qom. " " It does sound really weird ," he said. "If there was an attack, why would the attacker announce themselves by playing ' Thunderstruck? " If true, this attack is the third hacking attempt aimed at Tehran's controversial nuclear program. It sounds like the AEOI may have been hit with an infrastructure-targeting malware attack, similar to those that have plagued the Middle East since 201
#Flame Malware - 21st Century Massive cyber attack on Iran

#Flame Malware - 21st Century Massive cyber attack on Iran

May 30, 2012
Flame Malware - 21st Century Massive cyber attack on Iran A massive, highly sophisticated piece of malware has been newly found infecting systems in Iran and elsewhere and is believed to be part of a well-coordinated, ongoing, state-run cyber-espionage operation. The Flame computer virus not only stole large quantities of information from various Iranian government agencies, but apparently even disrupted its oil exports by shutting down oil terminals, information security firm Symantec Israel said yesterday. The Flame virus recently found in Iran could be used to infect other countries, according to the International Telecommunications Union. As the United Nations agency charged with helping members protect their data networks, the ITU plans to issue a warning about the danger of Flame. Iran's National Computer Emergency Response Team (Maher) said in a statement that the detection and clean-up tool was finished in early May and is now ready for distribution to organisations a
NASA SSL Digital Certificate hacked by Iranian Hackers

NASA SSL Digital Certificate hacked by Iranian Hackers

May 23, 2012
NASA SSL Digital Certificate hacked by Iranian Hackers Iranian hackers ' Cyber Warriors Team ' announced in an online post that it compromised an SSL certificate belonging to NASA and subsequently accessed information on thousands of NASA researchers. A space agency representative revealed that they're currently investigating the incident. The group said the certificate was compromised by exploiting an existing vulnerability within the portal's login system, but they didn't outline the entire attack. Once they had control over the certificate, they claim to have used it to "obtain User information for thousands of NASA researcher With Emails and Accounts of other users [sic]." " These incidents spanned a wide continuum from individuals testing their skill to break into NASA systems, to well-organized criminal enterprises hacking for profit, to intrusions that may have been sponsored by foreign intelligence services seeking to further their countries' objectives, " Paul K.
Call for Articles : THN Magazine June 2012, Malware Edition

Call for Articles : THN Magazine June 2012, Malware Edition

May 21, 2012
Call for Articles : THN Magazine June 2012, Malware Edition The Hacker News is calling for our June Magazine on the issue related to MALWARE . We'd like to see an analysis of the history of these most worrying viruses and the contemporary usage in cyber espionage and cyber warfare. It would be interesting to analyze the impact of the malware diffusion in the private sector and in government agencies, emphasizing the effectiveness of the cyber threat. Other topics to study are cyber crime activities that involve malware as method of monetization, with particular references to principal frauds schemes. What is the awareness level on hazards of the malware in common people and how the theat could harm new scenarios like mobiles and Cloud. What are the main countermeasures to mitigate virus diffusion? Thank you for your thoughtful consideration and we are looking forward to your work on this very important topic!  Email us at  admin@thehackernews.com Download all THN Magazin
Iran Preparing For Cyberwar Against U.S

Iran Preparing For Cyberwar Against U.S

Apr 26, 2012
Iran Preparing For Cyberwar Against U.S Security professionals in both the U.S. government and in private industry have long feared the prospect of a cyberwar with China or Russia, two states capable of launching destructive attacks on the computer networks that control critical assets such as the power grid or the financial system. But, Iran is recruiting a hacker army to target the U.S. power grid, water systems and other vital infrastructure for cyberattack in a future confrontation with the United States, security specialists will warn Congress Thursday. " If Iran is willing to blow up a Washington restaurant and kill innocent Americans, we would be naive to think Iran would never conduct a cyberattack against the U.S. homeland ," said Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman Pat Meehan, R-Pa. " Over the past three years, the Iranian regime has invested heavily in both defensive and offensive capabilities in cyberspace ," states testimony from Ilan Berman, vi
Cyber Attack on The Iranian Oil Ministry's Computer Network

Cyber Attack on The Iranian Oil Ministry's Computer Network

Apr 23, 2012
Cyber Attack on The Iranian Oil Ministry 's Computer Network The Iranian oil ministry's computer network came under attack from hackers and a computer virus, prompting the Islamic Republic to disconnect the country's main oil export terminal from the internet as a preventative measure, a semiofficial news agency reported on Monday. The Mehr News Agency, which is a semi-official arm of the Iranian government, reported Monday that the country's principal oil terminal on Kharg Island was disconnected from the Internet as part of the response to the attacks. Email systems associated with the targets were also pulled offline. Iranian officials said the virus attack, which began in earnest Sunday afternoon, had not affected oil production or exports, since the industry was still primarily mechanical and does not rely on the Internet. Officials said they were disconnecting the oil terminals and possibly some other installations in an effort to combat the virus. Cyberattac
Iran Replicating Captured U.S. Drone RQ-170 Sentinel

Iran Replicating Captured U.S. Drone RQ-170 Sentinel

Apr 22, 2012
Iran Replicating Captured U.S. Drone RQ-170 Sentinel Iranian military aerospace chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh was quoted having said:" The Americans should be aware to what extent we have infiltrated the plane. " Iran has broke the encryption codes and begun construction of a replica of the United States surveillance drone captured last year, according to Iranian officials. American spy drone that went down in Iran last year, including information that the aircraft was used to spy on Osama bin Laden weeks before he was killed. Iran also said it was building a copy of the drone. US Senator Joe Lieberman dismissed the claim that a copy was being made as " Iranian bluster " saying, "they're on the defensive because of our economic sanctions against them". The U.S. says the drone malfunctioned and downplayed any suggestion that Iran could mine the aircraft for sensitive information because of measures taken to limit the intelligence value of drones operating
Banking System Vulnerability - 3 million bank accounts hacked in Iran

Banking System Vulnerability - 3 million bank accounts hacked in Iran

Apr 17, 2012
Banking System Vulnerability - 3 million bank accounts hacked in Iran Iran's Central Bank has announced that the electronic information of 3 million customers of 10 Iranian banks have been compromised. These banks now require their customers to change their ATM pin numbers before they can access their account. This has caused a rush to the ATM machines by the worried customers. The hacker was identified as Khosro Zare', a former bank-system specialist in Iran who recently left the country.Zare' claimed in a blog that he hacked the PIN codes to highlight the vulnerability of Iran's banking system. According to the report, the hacker had provided the managing directors of the targeted banks with information about the bank accounts of 1000 customers in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19) to warn them about the susceptibility of their computer systems and networks to cyber threats. But Central bank officials had earlier downplayed the reports, sayi
Stuxnet was planted by Iranian double agent using memory stick

Stuxnet was planted by Iranian double agent using memory stick

Apr 14, 2012
Stuxnet was planted by Iranian double agent using memory stick The Stuxnet computer worm used to sabotage Iran's nuclear program was planted by a double agent working for Israel. The agent used a booby-trapped memory stick to infect machines deep inside the Natanz nuclear facility, according to a report published  on Wednesday. The worm is believed to have been placed on a specially crafted USB memory stick and handed over to a Natanz worker who, by all accounts, was an Iranian national belonging to a dissident group named Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK). "The MEK has been listed as a 'foreign terrorist organization' since 1997 because of deadly attacks on Americans abroad, but members of the group have been trained at a secret site in Nevada. U.S. officials consider them 'the assassination arm of Israel's Mossad intelligence service' as they have been connected to the killing of five Iranian nuclear scientists since 2007. The incident with Stuxnet is not the fir
Iran replacing Google, Hotmail with its own internal search engines and email services

Iran replacing Google, Hotmail with its own internal search engines and email services

Apr 12, 2012
Iran replacing Google, Hotmail with its own internal search engines and email services Iran has denied the report that it plans to cut itself off from the Internet. In a statement, the ministry said " The report is in no way confirmed by the ministry ". It added that it was " completely baseless ," and that it served only, " the propaganda wing of the West and providing its hostile media with a pretext emanating from a baseless claim ". Iranian minister for Information and Communications Technology Reza Taghipour was reported to have said that Iran plans to disconnect itself from the Internet and replace popular services like Google, Yahoo, and Hotmail with homegrown, Iranian services. They also claim that a system is in beta testing which includes a search engine called " Ya-Haq ", which directly translates as "calling God". The government is already accepting applications for Iran Web Mail accounts , which require you to enter a first and last name, postal add
Kelihos Botnet with 110,000 PCs take down finally

Kelihos Botnet with 110,000 PCs take down finally

Mar 29, 2012
Kelihos Botnet with 110,000 PCs take down finally Botnets are particularly insidious, using thousands of virus-infected computers which their owners are unaware are being used for sending out spam, launching denial-of-service attacks and stealing data.But taking down a botnet poses challenges. The main problem is that legitimate security companies can't use the same type of weapons as criminals. A group of malware experts from security companies Kaspersky Lab, CrowdStrike, Dell SecureWorks and the Honeynet Project, have worked together to disable the second version of the Kelihos botnet, which is significantly bigger than the one shut down by Microsoft and its partners. Kelihos is used to send spam, carry out DDoS attacks, and steal online currency such as bitcoin wallets. It operates as a so-called "peer-to-peer" bot network, which are more difficult to take down than those with a centralized command and control servers (C&C), according to Tillmann Werner, a senior
Six National Television Stations of Iran Hacked

Six National Television Stations of Iran Hacked

Mar 18, 2012
Six National Television Stations of Iran Hacked Co-Cain Warriors hackers today hack into 6 National Television Stations of Iran including Broadcasting Elam Center, IRIB Kermanshah Center, IRIB Kerman and 3 more. Hacker upload the deface page on their server and announce the day as " HappY 7Sin Day ". With growing conflicts in middle east more intrusions and DDOS attack on Iranian websites. Iran has been identified as the main cyber threat to the United States,Israel and European Countries. Yesterday we also report that, Iran's cyber defense headquarters has succeeded in making internal mail servers which would enable Iranian organizations and bodies to use local email addresses. Also last week, Iran launched a sophisticated cyber-attack against BBC Persian TV, according to the BBC News. The Reason behind this attack is part of a broader attempt by the government to disrupt the BBC's Persian service. This attack follows various tactics by the Iranian government, s
Iran Defense Forum users logins compromised and Leaked

Iran Defense Forum users logins compromised and Leaked

Mar 15, 2012
Iran Defense Forum users logins compromised and Leaked Hacker with name " Le0n B3lm0nt " claimed to hack into the Iran Defense Forum website (irandefence.net) and leak user details of all 3,212 members including their usernames, Emails and Passwords.  Iran Defense Forum is an independent forum that is not associated with the Iranian Government, neither it is affiliated with any governmental or regulatory agencies nor related to any political or religious entity. Hacker leak the database on Pastebin Note . Also two days before  Iran hacked BBC Persian TV  The Reason behind this attack is part of a broader attempt by the government to disrupt the BBC's Persian service. This attack follows various tactics by the Iranian government, such as harassment, arrests, and threats against the relatives of BBC Persia correspondents who still live in Iran, in an effort to force the journalists to quit the Persian news service.
BBC Persian TV hacked by Iranian government

BBC Persian TV hacked by Iranian government

Mar 14, 2012
BBC Persian TV hacked by  Iranian government According to BBC News, today Iran hacked BBC Persian TV ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/ ) . This is not the first time the Iranian government has tampered with the BBC's Persian service, Zdnet Report. The Reason behind this attack is part of a broader attempt by the government to disrupt the BBC's Persian service. This  attack follows various tactics by the Iranian government, such as harassment, arrests, and threats against the relatives of BBC Persia correspondents who still live in Iran, in an effort to force the journalists to quit the Persian news service. In Addition to this, The BBC's London office was inundated with automatic phone calls and the company's satellite feeds into Iran were also jammed, while this only affected owners of illegal satellite dishes, these are of course the only ones that can receive the BBC signal in Iran. The BBC has previously accused Iran of attempting to jam its broadcasts by eliminating VPN network
Iran Cyber Army in Action, Azerbaijani TV Down !

Iran Cyber Army in Action, Azerbaijani TV Down !

Feb 24, 2012
Iran Cyber Army in Action, Azerbaijani TV Down ! As we reported Yesterday that Azerbaijan Arrests a Iranian terror group and in response Iranian Hackers hits many Azerbaijan Sites like, Azerbaijan airlines (https://azerbaijanairlines.org/) and National Olympic Committee Of Azerbaijan (https://noc-aze.org) . Today Iran Cyber Army also come into Action for supporting Iran and deface the Azerbaijan State Television & Radio Company, AzTV websites also. A message in English from the hackers popped up in place of the AzTV website when it was opened." Life is Game"Game OVER..!!! ", the message read and was signed " the Iranian Cyber Army ".The website has already been restored. The attacks came a month after anti-Israeli hackers broke into the sites of several ministries and the governing party, leaving messages calling the Azerbaijani authorities "servants of the Jews". Relations between the two countries are tense at present.Iran has accused Baku of helping
Azerbaijan Arrests Iranian terror group, Iranian Hackers hit Azerbaijan Sites

Azerbaijan Arrests Iranian terror group, Iranian Hackers hit Azerbaijan Sites

Feb 23, 2012
Azerbaijan Arrests  Iranian terror group , Iranian Hackers hit Azerbaijan Sites The National Security Ministry of Azerbaijan said Tuesday that it had disrupted a suspected terrorist group working for Iran's secret services. The people were gathering intelligence and had acquired a large number of weapons and explosives, the ministry said. The group, led by a Sepah officer called Hamid and Hezbollah operative Hadji Abbas, was planning to stage attacks against the Israeli embassy and a Jewish cultural center in the Azeri capital Baku. To response this,Iranian Hacking Group "Cocain TeaM" attack on the websites of Azerbaijan airlines (https://azerbaijanairlines.org/) and National Olympic Committee Of Azerbaijan (https://noc-aze.org) and manage to collect lot of info and sent that to Iranian Governments to show their patriotic responsibility towards country. Cocain TeaM deface the websites also. Mirror of Hacks: 1.)   https://zone-h.com/mirror/id/17070956 2.)   https://zone-h.com
Iran will Develop their own security Software, No more foreign Solution

Iran will Develop their own security Software, No more foreign Solution

Feb 21, 2012
Iran will Develop their own security Software , No more foreign Solution According to latest report, Iran's Information and Communications Technology Minister announce that - Iran has prohibited import of foreign computer security software. Because International sanctions stopped Iran from obtaining anti-virus software. So, Iran stressed that no foreign software for computer security will be imported into the country, adding that Iran will rely on its own software, made by local developers. The Bonian Daneshpajouhan Institute has about 25 smaller firms that develop domestic security software of various nature, and country will rely on it.  A senior Iranian intelligence official has claimed that an estimated 16,000 computers were infected by the Stuxnet virus, which targeted the country's nuclear facilities and other industrial sites in 2010. The ban is intended to push Iran into the production of its own malware defense instruments. Whether the Stuxnet virus affected only
Cybersecurity Resources