| Much more at the link, all intelligible to general readers like me, but with terms and links of interest to you technical types. The author is Dorothy Denning, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Defense Analysis at the Naval Postgraduate School, which sounds impressive. |
In the wake of the US killing of a top Iranian general and Iran’s retaliatory missile strike, should the US be concerned about the cyberthreat from Iran? Already, pro-Iranian hackers have defaced several US websites to protest the killing of General Qassem Soleimani
. One group wrote "This is only a small part of Iran’s cyber capability" on one of the hacked sites.Two years ago, I wrote that Iran’s cyberwarfare capabilities lagged behind those of both Russia and China, but that it had become a major threat which would only get worse. It had already conducted several highly damaging cyberattacks.
Since then, Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan,the abbreviation
IRGCis a cognate form of
Stürmabteilung (or SA),the term
Supreme Guideis a cognate form of either
Shahor
Führeror maybe both, and they hate
has continued to develop and deploy its cyberattacking capabilities. It carries out attacks through a network of intermediaries, allowing the regime to strike its foes while denying direct involvement.
ISLAMIC REVOLUTIONARY GUARD CORPS-SUPPORTED HACKERS
Iran’s cyberwarfare capability lies primarily within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the country’s military. However,
there's more than one way to stuff a chicken...
rather than employing its own cyberforce against foreign targets, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps appears to mainly outsource these cyberattacks.
According to the cyberthreat intelligence firm, Recorded Future, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps uses trusted intermediaries to manage contracts with independent groups. These intermediaries are loyal to the regime, but separate from it. They translate the Iranian military’s priorities into discrete tasks, which are then auctioned off to independent contractors.
Recorded Future estimates that as many as 50 organizations compete for these contracts. Several contractors may be involved in a single operation.