The US Cyber Command on Thursday evening launched a retaliatory cyber strike against an Iranian spy group which had been behind last week’s attacks on oil carriers in the Sea of Oman, Yahoo News reported Saturday night, citing former intelligence officials.
The group, which is affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, has engaged for several years in digitally targeting military and commercial ships that sail through the Strait of Hormuz.
The sources declined to provide any further details of the retaliatory cyber operation, other than to say the cyber attacks disabled Iranian computer systems that controlled missile launchers.
The US Department of Homeland Security has been warning of a “recent rise in malicious cyber activity directed at United States industries and government agencies by Iranian regime actors and proxies.”
Want to know more about password spraying and how to stop it? https://t.co/s2X1AXwOGL https://t.co/F5svf06Dh4
— Chris Krebs (@CISAKrebs)
Meanwhile, according to Fars News, a former employee of the Iranian Defense Ministry’s Aerospace Industries Organization was executed for carrying out espionage operations for the White House and the CIA. The man, Jalal Hajizavar, was executed on Saturday at Rajayee Shahr prison in Karaj in Western Tehran after being convicted by a military court.
He was dismissed nine years ago and had “explicitly confessed that he had collaborated with the CIA and spied for the United States in return for money.” Documents and spying equipment were discovered at his home.