Following the news that the US Justice Department announced charges against nine Iranians and an Iranian company for attempting to hack into hundreds of universities worldwide, dozens of companies and parts of the U.S. government, IT security experts commented below.
Gabriel Gumbs, Vice President at STEALTHbits Technologies:
Sam Curry, CSO at Cybereason:
“I expect the Iranian government to use a plausible deniability defense and claim that these rogue hacking groups aren’t affiliated with Tehran. Any nation state, Iran in this case, can say these were rogue groups, but when there is overwhelming proof, the circumstantial evidence can pile up. What’s also interesting about today’s indictments is that the 2015 nuclear deal struck between Iran, the US and six other countries lifted crippling economic sanctions in return for their disarmament of their nuclear weapon program. Many experts point toward this agreement as the main reason cyber attacks originating from Tehran have significantly diminished. But the DOJs announcement shows a nation that continued its hacking operations in the face of this agreement.
“When you are a “pariah nation” such as Iran you still have to keep information flowing because information is a lifeline. We now see that as a nation-state, Iran’s playbook is to ensure there is currency flowing and a flow of information. For the United States, this is a precedent in establishing the message on how we as a nation will deal with sanctions. We are a country who respects the rule of law, and with that, follow up matters.”
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