The Cyber Command of the US Armed Forces in June this year launched a cyberattack against Iran, because of which the Iranian military lost the ability to attack foreign tankers in the Persian Gulf.
The New York Times, citing its sources in Washington, reported this.
“A secret cyberattack against Iran in June wiped out a critical database used by Iran’s paramilitary arm to plot attacks against oil tankers and degraded Tehran’s ability to covertly target shipping traffic in the Persian Gulf, at least temporarily, according to senior American officials”, — reports The New York Times.
As noted, Iran still cannot restore its computer systems and establish communications between military units. According to the newspaper’s informants,during the attack was destroyed the key intelligence database used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). This organization is considered the main culprit in the undermining of tankers in the Persian Gulf in May and June of this year. The United States and Iran have long been involved in an undeclared cyberconflict, carefully calibrated to remain in the gray zone between war and peace. The June 20 strike was a critical attack in that ongoing battle, officials said.
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According to the publication, the attack was the US response to the destruction of an American drone, which, according to Tehran, violated Iranian airspace. According to the sources of the publication, Iran regularly carries out hacker attacks against the United States, but the actions of cyber command did not lead to an increase in their intensity.
Officials did not disclose details of the operation. According to a senior official from the US Department of Defense, Iran’s air defense and missile systems were not affected.
Cyber weapons, unlike conventional weapons, can only be used several times, and sometimes even once. Victims of attacks can find the vulnerability used to gain access to their networks, and then develop a patch to block this vulnerability.
“Cyberstrikes also inevitably cut off access to intelligence that American operatives gained from exploiting that vulnerability, once the adversary discovers and fixes it. Losing even some access to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Tehran’s paramilitary force that is deeply involved with proxy forces around the Middle East, is a high price to pay”, — reports The New York Times citing its Pentagon sources.
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