A few days ago a massive explosion in eastern Iran created chaos and speculation among national security officials. Now, pentest training experts mention that the Iranian authorities believe this explosion could have been triggered by a hacking attack, although the investigation is still ongoing.
The explosion occurred due to a gas tank in an industrial park, although considerable damage is reported in a missile factory in the city of Tehran: “In the explosion of the gas facilities of Parchin, it has been mentioned that the incident was caused by the hacking of computer systems”, said General Gholamreza Jalali, head of the Passive Defense Institution, at a conference on recent incidents. “Until we come to a conclusion about the dimensions of this accident, we can’t comment on anything else.”
According to pentest training experts, the explosion damaged the Khojir missile production complex (the damage can be seen in satellite imagery from these facilities) although the Iranian authorities have insisted that it actually took place in the Parchin industrial park forty kilometers away.
Many specialists suspect that the authorities are covering up many details about the case, which coupled with political tensions with other nations have raised far more doubts than answers to what actually happened.
Weapons of mass destruction held by Iran were a topic of debate at the United Nations Security Council a few days ago. During the meetings, discussions were made about extending an international arms embargo to Iran; in this regard, the U.S. government argues that the recent Iranian space launch is actually a front for covering up a developed ballistic missile program.
The United States and Israel have worked together to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program for a couple of years, employing even hit-and-eye criminals as the dangerous Stuxnet hacking tool, developed to compromise nuclear facilities. Pentest training experts believe that the type of facilities affected in Iran might also have fallen victim to some similar malware variant.
Anonymous reports claim that Iran has become one of the main cyber threats to the United States, behind only Russia and China, so American authorities could be deploying cyberwarfare campaigns against their rivals, mainly in the Middle East.
For further reports on vulnerabilities, exploits, malware variants and computer security risks, it is recommended to enter the website of the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS), as well as the official platforms of technology companies.
He is a well-known expert in mobile security and malware analysis. He studied Computer Science at NYU and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2003. He is actively working as an anti-malware expert. He also worked for security companies like Kaspersky Lab. His everyday job includes researching about new malware and cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in mobile security and mobile vulnerabilities.
