Tehran stages cyber warfare drill: Report

TEHRAN – Agence France-Presse

An Iranian Qadir light submarine and a hovercraft move in the Gulf waters. Iran is holding a naval drill in the strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman. AFP photo

Iranian forces have carried out what they called cyber warfare tactics for the first time as the Islamic republic’s naval units staged maneuvers in the Strait of Hormuz, media reports said yesterday.

The navy “launched a cyber attack against the computer network of the defensive forces in order to infiltrate the network and hack information or spread virus,” the English-language Iran daily reported, quoting Rear Adm. Amir Rastegari.

Rastegari said the cyber attack was successfully detected and blocked. Over the past three years, Iranian industrial facilities including oil and nuclear sites, as well as communications networks and banking systems, have all come under cyber attacks blamed on the United States and Israel. Tehran says it has developed civil and military cyber units to counter such attacks.

Drill in Hormuz
Naval forces of the elite Revolutionary Guards have been engaged in a military drill in the Strait of Hormuz as well as in the Gulf of Oman for the past week.

Iranian military officials say the exercises are aimed at demonstrating Tehran’s “defensive naval capabilities... and sending a message of peace and friendship to regional countries.”