Iranian Internet Disrupted By Cyber Attacks

Officials in Iran have been busy over the last few months setting up the country's new national information network. Once that information network was set up, Iran moved to block certain Internet services such as YouTube and Google search. Iran later said that it accidentally blocked access to Google Gmail at the same time.

New reports are coming out of Iran that claim cyber attackers targeted the country's infrastructure and communications companies. According to the officials, the attacks disrupted the Internet across the entire country. Report of the disrupted Internet access was announced by Mehdi Akhavan Behabadi, secretary of the High Council of Cyberspace yesterday.

The official said the attack that occurred yesterday included "traffic of several gigabytes" that hit the Internet infrastructure and slowed down access across the country. The official said that the attacks were "organized" and "have in mind the country's nuclear, oil, and information networks."

Iran is no stranger to cyber attack. In 2010, the country was hit by the Stuxnet computer worm that officials believe was planted by Israel or the US. Some reports indicate that Stuxnet was designed to cause damage and set back Iran's nuclear program.

[via Reuters]