Mystery of the UK Parliament cyber-attack unsolved, as spotlight turns on Israel

Since my last post in October, there has been no confirmation of which group was behind the cyber-attack on Westminster, or the role of the Iranian government in sponsoring or tasking the attackers (as noted in my last blog, The Times newspaper reported that the Iranian state was likely behind the attack). Since then, the Israeli General Nadav Padan, in charge of Israel's network security, has spoken out about the growing number of attacks orchestrated by Iranian state-sponsored hackers against Israel. General Padan, who is Head of the IDF C41 Cyber Defese Directorate, told the Reuters Cyber Security Summit that Iran is now responsible for many of the thousands of attacks carried out on Israel each day. The controversial nature of Israeli Foreign Policy continues to stimulate acts of retribution from the Arab states, and Iranian cyber-attacks will, at least to some extent, represent long-standing resentment caused by the Stuxnet attack - rumored to have been carried out jointly by Israel and the US in 2010. This is surely evidence that Iran is continuing to wage war in the cyber domain.

                       General Nadav Padan

Iran has featured heavily in the news of late. John Kerry (former US Secretary), recently rebuffed Donald Trump's claims that Iran is violating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCOPA), arguing that there is no 'scientific bases' and 'no evidence' for Trump's claims, and that retaining the Iran nuclear deal is key to preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle-East. Whilst there may be no evidence to indicate that Iran is defying the terms of the nuclear deal, the USA remains at the center of the cyber-attacks (see my earlier article: Iranian Hacking Threat to US if Nuclear Deal Collapses). However, last month's attack on the UK Parliament demonstrates that Iranian hostility is not confined to the US and Israel; the governments of other Western states are also being targeted.

In the meantime, the people of Iran continue to suffer 'collateral damage', as they lose out form US government restrictions that prevent Iranians from hosting apps on the Apple and Google app stores. Iranians had previously been able to access and download Apple and Google software (as Communications Technology was exempt from the Iran embargo), and activists are putting pressure on Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to return to the Obama administration policy.