Iran’s gas station was attacked by Israeli hackers, and the silent cyber war has begun!
Cailian News on December 19th (edited by Ma Lan)On Monday, most gas stations in Iran were paralyzed by external attacks. According to Iranian state media, services were still not fully restored late Monday.
Iranian oil minister Javad Owji said on Monday that the cyber attack caused nearly 70% gas stations in Iran to malfunction. According to Iran’s National Petroleum Products Distribution Company, the oil pump went offline due to technical problems caused by hostile organizations, but it did not point out the suspects.
Subsequently, a hacker organization named Gonjeshke Darande announced on X that it was responsible for the attack. Gonjeshke Darande means predator sparrow in Persian. In 2021, the organization carried out the destruction of Iran’s infrastructure and a steel plant, and was widely regarded as having an Israeli background.
In its statement, the predatory sparrow organization shouted to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: This attack is a response to the aggression of Iran and its regional agent (Hamas), and there is a price to pay for playing with fire.
Silent battlefield
Predator Sparrow also said in the statement that similar to the previous actions, the attack on gas stations was carried out in a controlled manner. They warned the Iranian emergency services in advance and ensured that some gas stations could still operate normally to limit the damage to emergency services.
Reza Navar, a spokesperson for the Iranian Gas Station Association, said that there is no shortage of fuel supply, but I hope that drivers will not go to gas stations now, and experts are solving the software problem of the fuel system.
Israeli officials declined to comment on the hacking incident. However, the Israeli network department pointed out on Monday that about three weeks ago, Iran and Hezbollah launched a cyber attack on a hospital in northern Israel. Although it was finally defeated, the confidential information of the hospital was still leaked.
Gil Messing, chief of staff of the US-Israel cyber security company Checkpoint Software, revealed that the cyber attack of predator sparrow demonstrated Israel’s capabilities.
The cyber security investigator of another well-known international company believes that Iran and Israel are engaged in a full-scale cyber war, but they are hidden underground. The complexity of the attack shows that there is the support of state power behind it.
He pointed out that the IT system of Iranian gas stations has a history of ten years, so it is easy to be attacked by hackers. But hackers from both sides are also wrestling with other more important government and military infrastructures. He said that even if the situation between Iran and Israel has not reached the boiling point, the situation is bound to become more tense.
Sources who used to work in the British Foreign Office also warned that this may be information from Israel. In view of the actions of Iran and its members of the axis of resistance, Israel thinks it is necessary to respond, which roughly means that it has the ability to put out the lights in Tehran, and if Iran continues to escalate, Israel will take more destructive actions.