Iran to hold nationwide cyber maneuver

Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali made the announcement at a conference held on the occasion of Iran’s Cyber Defense month in Tehran on Saturday.

"The cyber maneuvers bylaw has been prepared and will be circulated among relevant organizations" in a bid to enhance the country’s passive defensive objectives in cyberspace, said the commander.

He said his organization also plans to set regulations for the country's vital infrastructure so that complete cyber safety is achieved.

“First layers of [cyber defensive] infrastructure are the critical layers for the country, which are managed by special software and if they stop functioning, it will create threats for national security...," he added.

Iran has been the target of several cyber attacks over the past few years.

In late 2011, Iran launched a cyber defense headquarters tasked with preventing computer worms from breaking into or stealing data from the country's maximum-security networks, including nuclear facilities, power plants, data centers and banks.

In July 2010, media reports claimed that a virus called, Stuxnet, had targeted industrial computers around the globe, with Iran being the main target of the attack. They said the country's Bushehr nuclear power plant was at the center of the cyber attack.

On June 1, 2012, The New York Times revealed that Stuxnet was part of a wave of sophisticated digital attacks codenamed “Olympic Games,” which US President Barack Obama had ordered against the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities.

The paper also confirmed that the Stuxnet virus was created with the help of a secret Israeli intelligence unit.

Iranian experts, however, detected the worm in time, averting any damage to the country's industrial sites and resources.

MNA
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