Iran's Intelligence Minister Admits to Hacking Opposition Emails
Dec 28, 2011
Iran's Intelligence Minister, Heydar Moslehi, has publicly admitted to hacking the emails of opposition members. Iranian news agencies, including ILNA, quoted Moslehi stating that emails were the primary communication tool for opposition members during last year's postelection protests. The Intelligence Ministry was able to break into these emails and defeat "the enemy." "One of the officials, in his speech, carelessly announced that we have access to the emails. Within 24 hours, they coded and password-protected their emails," Moslehi said. "Of course, we in the Intelligence Ministry broke those passwords within 48 hours." Moslehi mentioned that emails were exchanged between "foreigners and their elements inside Iran." Speaking at a December 25 conference on the achievements of Iranian expatriates at Tehran's Shahid Beheshti University, he said Iran controlled "many dimensions" of the postelection protests by monitoring email. He accused the United States of