An Iranian hacker group calling itself the ‘Iran Cyber Security Group Hackers’ attacked a US govt agency called Federal Depository Library Program. They put up a message of “revenge” for the death of Qassem Suleimani, the Iranian general who was recently killed by the US government in a targeted drone strike.
The cyber event was confirmed by the US Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency. The agency, however, added that “at this time, there is no confirmation that this was the action of Iranian state-sponsored actors.”
Within a few years, Iranian hackers were able to grow cyber terror capabilities to launch Shamoon computer virus attacks in 2012 against the national oil companies including Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Aramco and Qatar’s RasGas. In fact, in 2019, both the US and UK governments have published many public alerts on Iranian cybersecurity threats.
According to Microsoft security researchers, Iranian threat organisation APT 33 has been targeting industrial control systems in the US through a wave of password-spraying attacks against manufacturers, industrial equipment suppliers, and other companies working on industrial controls. Other attacks have also focused on US energy companies.