Iranian Port near Strait of Hormuz hit by “failed” Cyber-attack

Iran’s largest port in the Strait of Hormuz, Bandar Abbas, was targeted by a cyber-attack in the recent days that only left a number of private systems damaged.

“A recent cyber-attack failed to penetrate Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO)’s systems. It was only able to infiltrate and damage a number of private operating systems at the Shahid Rajaei port near Bandar Abbas and the Strait of Hormuz in recent days,” Mohammad Rastad, Managing Director of the Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO), was quoted as saying by ILNA news agency on Sunday.

Operations at the PMO have been running smoothly undisrupted by the attack, Rastad added.

“The attack was carried out by a foreign entity,” the official told Fars News Agency.

In December, three cyber-attacks reportedly hit Iran within a span of one week.

“Two of the three attacks were repelled by the country’s security shield. Islamic Republic’s national cybersecurity wall, known as Digital Fortress or Dezhfa, has helped thwart 33 million cyber-attacks against the country in 2019,” Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi was quoted as saying by Fars.

Tehran’s project to develop a national intranet system, National Information Network (NIN), launched in 2010, is said to be 80% complete.

It aims cut down the country’s dependency on international cyberspace; and prevent Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) from helping Iranians bypass the Islamic Republic’s censorship of the Internet. The intranet would allow the government to decide what content can be accessed by users, removing the need for absolute shutdowns like the one imposed during the protests, according to state media.