Security Experts:

Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Cyberwarfare

Iran Strongly Condemns US Sanctions Over Albania Hacking

Iran on Saturday strongly condemned a US decision to impose sanctions on its intelligence ministry, blamed for a major cyber attack on NATO ally Albania.

Iran on Saturday strongly condemned a US decision to impose sanctions on its intelligence ministry, blamed for a major cyber attack on NATO ally Albania.

Albania severed diplomatic ties with Iran on Wednesday after accusing it of the July 15 cyber attack that sought, but failed, to paralyse public services and access data and government communications systems.

In response on Friday, the United States slapped sanctions on Iran’s intelligence ministry and its minister Esmail Khatib, saying the attack “disregards norms of responsible peacetime state behaviour in cyberspace”.

On Saturday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said: “The ministry of foreign affairs strongly condemns the action of the US treasury department in repeatedly sanctioning the ministry of intelligence of the Islamic republic.

“America’s immediate support for the false accusation of the Albanian government… shows that the designer of this scenario is not the latter, but the American government,” he added in a statement.

Kanani accused the US of “giving full support to a terrorist sect”, referring to the opposition People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, or Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), members of which are hosted by Albania.

Albania agreed in 2013 to take in members of the MEK from Iraq at the request of Washington and the United Nations, with thousands settling in the Balkan country over the years.

“This criminal organisation continues to play a role as one of America’s tools in perpetrating terrorist acts, cyber attacks” against Iran, the statement added.

The MEK backed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the 1979 revolution that ousted the shah but rapidly fell out with the new Islamic authorities and embarked on a campaign to overthrow the regime.

The MEK then sided with Iraq under Saddam Hussein in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

RelatedAlbania Cuts Diplomatic Ties With Iran Over July Cyberattack

Related: Microsoft Dives Into Iranian Ransomware APT Attacks

Written By

AFP 2023

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join this webinar to learn best practices that organizations can use to improve both their resilience to new threats and their response times to incidents.

Register

Join this live webinar as we explore the potential security threats that can arise when third parties are granted access to a sensitive data or systems.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cyberwarfare

WASHINGTON - Cyberattacks are the most serious threat facing the United States, even more so than terrorism, according to American defense experts. Almost half...

Cyberwarfare

Websites of German airports, administration bodies and banks were hit by DDoS attacks attributed to Russian hacker group Killnet

Cyberwarfare

Iranian APT Moses Staff is leaking data stolen from Saudi Arabia government ministries under the recently created Abraham's Ax persona

Cyberwarfare

The war in Ukraine is the first major conflagration between two technologically advanced powers in the age of cyber. It prompts us to question...

Application Security

Fortinet on Monday issued an emergency patch to cover a severe vulnerability in its FortiOS SSL-VPN product, warning that hackers have already exploited the...

Cyberwarfare

Russia-linked cyberespionage group APT29 has been observed using embassy-themed lures and the GraphicalNeutrino malware in recent attacks.

Application Security

Virtualization technology giant VMware on Tuesday shipped urgent updates to fix a trio of security problems in multiple software products, including a virtual machine...

Cyberwarfare

A newly identified threat actor tracked as NewsPenguin has been targeting military organizations in Pakistan with sophisticated malware.