Over the past two years, Iranian hackers have been particularly active. They have carried out numerous attacks on many companies around the world. Now, they are expanding their network even further and targeting politicians, diplomats and military personnel in the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom.
A spying campaign on the Australian Parliament was recently uncovered. Evidence suggests that a state-funded group of Iranian hackers is behind the attacks.
Iranian hackers are also said to be behind the attack on the British Parliament in 2017. Security firm Rensecurity came to this conclusion after noticing the similarities between the two attacks.
These attacks, as well as many others, show that Iranian hackers have targeted the West and have become quite dangerous.
In both attacks on Parliaments, hackers carried out “brute force” attacks in an attempt to guess passwords to gain access to sensitive information of individuals within the government. In 2017, hackers managed to obtain the personal information of 90 MPs.
Now, they are targeting elements of a nation's infrastructure, such as banks, post offices, parliamentary networks and more. For example, one victim was the chairwoman of the UK Post Office. Hackers managed to gain access to email and mobile number.
Why have they been so active lately?
One possible explanation is that they want to monitor the movements and decisions of some of the most important governments. The United States is constantly warning of military and diplomatic actions against Iran. Therefore, the Iranian government may have recruited the hacker group to monitor the governments involved in these decisions, in order to obtain as much information as possible.
Some experts argue that these attacks may be aimed at influencing political elections, spreading disinformation, and undermining the political and economic systems of these countries.
The most worrying version is the launch of a cyber war against Western countries as a preemptive action that will harm the West, before it has time to react and proceed with stronger economic sanctions or military actions against Iran.
Iranian hacker attacks could have global implications
Although the Iranians' initial targets were America, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, any ally of these countries could also be targeted.
In the US, the FBI has indicted 9 key leaders of the Mabna Institute, an organization closely linked to the Iranian government.
It is also possible that there are hackers from the Dark Web collaborating with Iranian hackers.
It seems the West should be on guard. If Iranian hackers are indeed working on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard or other military units, then Western countries should adopt a more aggressive stance.
