Report: Trump Move Provokes New Iran Cyber Attacks

Reprinted with permission from AlterNet.

Iran already redirected its cyberwarfare tactics within a day of President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would no longer abide by the multilateral agreement meant to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, according to a new report from the New York Times. These moves could foreshadow increasing tensions between the two countries in the wake of the destruction of the deal, as many had warned.

Reporter Nicole Perlroth found that the security firm CrowdStrike reported an increase in Iranian cyberattacks targeting diplomats of American allies following the announcement. These attacks included sending malware to “diplomats who work in the foreign affairs offices of United States allies and employees at telecommunications companies in an attempt to infiltrate their computer systems,” the report said.

The report also found that Iranian hackers have been targeting U.S. military operations in Europe in recent months. Prior to Trump’s efforts to undermine President Barack Obama’s diplomacy with Iran, the country’s cyberattacks had been primarily focused on its foreign neighbors, Perlroth reports.

At the same time, Politico reports that Trump’s new hawkish national security adviser John Bolton intends to remove the administration’s top cybersecurity position entirely. So if a major cyberwar is coming, the U.S. may not even be well-positioned to fight it.

Cody Fenwick is a reporter and editor. Follow him on Twitter @codytfenwick.