Iranian Hackers Attack Iranian Government Portals & Banks

The IRGC Organized Cyber Crime Investigation Center have reported that over 3,000 Iranian websites have been hacked by a group called the Mafia Hacking Team.

According to Tasnim news, IRGC Organized Cyber Crime Investigation Center spokesman Mostafa Alizadeh stated that, "The person who recently hacked state bodies' websites managed to access banks' data bases, including 3,000 pay slips... the person who introduced themselves as 'Mafia Hacking Team' in cyberspace and hacked websites of state bodies had identified well-known sites more than a year ago"

Alizadeh also added that, "This hacker tried to make these bodies realize that the security hole that exists in their portals but they did not pay any attention to this". In other words, Iran has been caught with her cyber-underwear exposed and is very red faced!

Mostafa Alizadeh stated that the attacker had also hacked various bank information, but did not publish the information (including 3,000 payslips) as the attacker "did not have criminal intentions", according to Alizadeh.
So it seems that Mafia Hacking Team are not black hat hackers but perhaps gray hat hackers?

The IRGC said that of the 3,000 websites attacked, 38 were Government sites, including the National Organization for Civil Registration (reported by the Iranian Young Journalists Club), Roads and Urban Development, Customs, Industries and Mines organizations. In addition, 370 University sites were also attacked.

Alizadeh was at least honest enough to admit that those "organizations do not use firewalls and lack enough experts for updating their security means". Not the best cyber security policy perhaps...

Iranian Government Spying in Social Networking Sites

No one can deny that these days millions of Iranians rely on Facebook. The high number of Facebook users in Iran, which is estimated to be anywhere between four million and five million people, makes this a social phenomena. Young Iranians are denied the most basic freedoms even in their private lives and without social liberties,what these users reflect on their Facebook pages is in effect how they would like to live.

Iranians use social networking sites among other things for political discussion, more open posting and publication of works of art and literature, the announcement of events that cannot be publicized on domestic newspapers and to find kindred spirits or like-minded people. But is it possible for Iranians appear in any arena without Islamic Republic officials cracking down on them?

In June 2014 three Ahvazi citizens were sentenced to three years in jail for creating certain Facebook pages, membership on Facebook carried a one-year sentence. Some people are arrested for crimes against morality and public decency on Facebook. In July 2014, a Revolutionary Court sentenced eight people to 127 years imprisonment in total for being active Facebook users. In another instance the Malayer Security chief announced the sentencing of 22 Facebook users, and this is a another long story.

Ali MirAhmadi, the deputy head of Iran Cyber Police has said: “The main objective of Iran’s Cyber Police is to promote cyber security through continuous observation and monitoring of cyber space. I advise all users to comply with the laws and regulations and avoid any form of offence within cyber space because the police have complete knowledge of it.”

In most cases as soon as someone is arrested for using Facebook, the Cyber Police regards him as either a spy, prostitute, enemy abettor or guilty of crimes against morals and public decency. The offences are considered to be proven in advance.

A lawyer says that judges often have no expertise in cyber technology and adds: “Judges have no expertise in computer technology and so everything goes back to the reports from the ministry of intelligence or the Cyber Police. The judge accepts these reports as expert opinions. Therefore, it is impossible to prove otherwise.”

An IT expert says the problem is that when an Iranian enters the World Wide Web, he must follow the model of use that suits his circumstances in Iran. “In our country, the internet and social networking sites are a venue for political activity. The government views this political activity as propaganda against the regime. Therefore, cyber space is under close scrutiny by the government.” The IT specialist goes on to conclude that for this reason, internet users in Iran must maintain different security criteria for themselves when they use the internet as opposed to people outside of Iran.

Viber Contests Ability of Iran to Tap Communications

In September Iran newspaper Khabaronline claimed that Viber conversations can be monitored by Iranian government agencies. 

 

In the piece entitled “Are Viber and WhatsApp really monitored easily?” the paper quoted a “computer expert” named Mani Haghshenas who stated: “It is possible for users to use Internet networks that shut down certain security protocols and disallow Viber to encrypt messages, and, ultimately, a network such as Viber would prefer to switch to a normal message transmission mode, in order to avoid permanent nonoperation of its application for some of its users. The country’s filtering systems may sometimes block and disable the security and communication protection capabilities of an application, and in order to continue its operation, such applications may automatically have to provide their services to their users without encryption, and such circumstances would assist the governments to control and tap communications.” 

 

A Viber Company representative refuted these claims and told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the application communications are encrypted and as such it is not possible for third parties to monitor messages. “All text messages sent through Viber on its supported platforms are encrypted. Media messages, such as photos and videos, are encrypted on Viber for iOS, Viber for Android, Viber for Windows 8 and Viber for Windows Phone 8.”