Iran has indirectly blamed Israel for a series of attempted cyber attacks that it says targeted its communication infrastructure over the last few days.
The accusations were aimed at Israel on Monday via Twitter on the same day that U.S. sanctions that were reinstated on the country.
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi claimed in a tweet that “a regime with a history of using cyber weapons, such as the Stuxnet, this time has tried to harm the infrastructure of communications but with the vigilance of [our] technical teams, they ended up empty handed.”
He added that Iran “will pursue this hostile act through international bodies.”
Meanwhile, senior communications official and chairman of Communication Infrastructure Company Hamid Fatahi tweeted that “Some of our communication infrastructures have been attacked by some sources in an illegal regime.
“It was so easy to defeat them,” he declared. “They showed the Int’l community that their accusation against Iran for cyber attacks was just a ridiculous delusion. Remember Stuxnet.”
He added that “It’s no surprise to the world that they claim to be advocates of human rights while killing a nation in cold blood,” again referring indirectly to Israel.
Both tweets referenced the Stuxnet incident in which thousands of centrifuges involved in Iran’s military nuclear program were destroyed in 2011.
Stuxnet, a computer worm, was believed to have been created by American and Israeli programmers. However, neither country has ever taken responsibility for the attack. It was first uncovered in 2010.
Ilanit Chernick and TPS contributed content to this report.
