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Iran's supreme spiritual leader: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Photo: KHAMENEI OFFICE HANDOUT/EPA
Iran foiled central bank hack
The central bank was the target of a so-called DDoS attack (Distributed Denial of Service) on Thursday night, the state news agency IRNA quoted the head of the national infrastructure communications company as saying on Friday.
Such attacks aim to cripple servers by flooding them with requests.
Anonymous and other global hacker groups threatened cyberattacks on Iranian institutions and government officials in October in order to support anti-government protests and circumvent internet censorship there.
The central bank had already announced in September that its website was temporarily down due to a cyber attack.
Internet access is severely restricted in Iran.
The reason: the massive anti-regime protests that broke out after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September.
The Kurd was arrested by the Morality Police for enforcing the strict dress code for women.
Revolutionary Guards officer shot dead in Tehran
An attack was also carried out in the capital Tehran around 78 hours before the digital attack;
a member of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) was killed.
The man was shot dead in front of his house on Tuesday, the Tasnim news agency reported.
The soldier was the commander of a local Basij unit, the IRGC relief militia, in southern Tehran.
Another person was injured in the attack.
Nothing was initially known about the exact background to the act, which Tasnim described as a "terrorist attack".
Mourning events were held across the country on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the death of top general Qasem Soleimani.
While pro-systemites revere the IRGC as an elite force, the Guardians of the Revolution have also recently drawn widespread hatred for their role in suppressing anti-system protests.
US imposes sanctions over Iranian military aid to Moscow
Meanwhile, the US government has announced that it will impose new sanctions on the theocracy because of Iranian support for the Russian military in the Ukraine war.
Several executives of the Iranian aerospace company Qods Aviation Industry were affected, the US Treasury Department said on Friday.
This is responsible for the development and production of drones.
Tehran passed these on to Russia for use in the aggressive war against Ukraine.
The director of the Iranian Aerospace Industries Organization is also affected by the sanctions.
According to the US government, this is the "primary organization" in overseeing Iran's ballistic missile programs.
Iran reportedly sent drones to Russia as early as August, which can be used, for example, to attack military objects such as radar and artillery, as well as energy infrastructure.
A few weeks later, Russian forces repeatedly attacked targets in Ukraine with Iranian Shahed 136 kamikaze drones, causing extensive damage.
dop/dpa/Reuters