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Security United States

Iran's Rail Network Hit by Possible Cyber Attack, State TV Says (bloomberg.com) 31

A potential cyber attack on Iran's state railway company created "unprecedented chaos" at stations across the country and led to cancellations and delays on hundreds of lines, state TV reported. From a report: Departure notice boards showed blanket cancellations and carried the message "long delay following cyber attack," the national broadcaster said, adding that the disruption to Islamic Republic of Iran Railways' computer systems also affected station entrances and exits as well as ticket booths. The national rail company's website, www.rai.ir, wasn't loading as of 7.50 p.m. in Tehran. Iranian state TV didn't say where it got the information.
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Iran's Rail Network Hit by Possible Cyber Attack, State TV Says

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  • by Ostracus ( 1354233 ) on Friday July 09, 2021 @12:24PM (#61566459) Journal

    Did anyone check for USB sticks in the parking lot?

  • I see Russian hackers are doing quite the job of making friends all over the globe. Putin is mistaken if he thinks nations are going to simply forget about his indifference to this behavior.

    • Why would Russian hackers attack Iranian railway stations?

      Where is the monetary gain?

      The hackers posted notices attacking Khamenei. So this appears to be motivated by politics, not money.

      • Why would Russian hackers attack Iranian railway stations?

        Like always, to demand ransom.

        Where is the monetary gain?

        If it's ransomware then... the ransom.

        The hackers posted notices attacking Khamenei.

        This wasn't in anything I read. Do you have a link?

      • Why would Russian hackers attack Iranian railway stations?

        Maybe they didn't.

        Perhaps this is just another mistake by an overworked and under-qualified IT guy and the convenient way to avoid blame is to blame it on Russian hackers.

      • I'll bet you Khamenei doesn't get the train. You know who gets the train? Working people who are just trying to provide for their families and can't help where they were born.

      • IKR.

        There are two countries interested in Destabilising Iran.

        1. The United States.
        2. Israel.

        Who has a documented history of cyberattacks in Iran... that's right the US and Israel.

    • This is probably Israel.

      • This is probably Israel.

        I haven't seen any Israeli operations that are strictly to cause chaos so if it was them then they would need a very good reason to expose their operations in such a public manner. Alternatively, if they flubbed and accidentally corrupted the entire system instead of making a minor change then that could be an explanation.

    • Gravis Zero > I see Russian hackers are doing quite the job of making friends all over the globe. Putin is mistaken if he thinks nations are going to simply forget about his indifference to this behavior

      I thought the Ruskies and Iranians were allies. More likely a drive-by on Microsoft Windows.
  • Maybe the Iranians will nuke the responsible party and solve the ransomware epidemic for us.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      Their missiles do not have the range to the Baltic states. They can get as far as Georgia though. There, the cat is out of the bag and the elephant in the corner of the room can stop pretending it is not there.

      While most of the ransom is transferred in Bitcoins, these bitcoins still need to be laundered and made into real money. That service, funnily enough, is not available from any Russian financial institution.

      Russian banks cannot touch BTC with a barge pole despite the fact that BTC stopped illegal [cnbc.com]

    • The only "responsible" party is the operator who installed the computers. If they ch ... ch ... choose a weak OS for a rail network then they cannot act surprised that a nation state or a script kiddie found a way to attack it.

      Ransomware or turning your network into a botnet or clickfarm, makes no odds, putting something weak on the internet, or intranet, is just not fit for purpose.

      I'm tired of watching news article after news article of complaint and finger pointing towards nation states expecting some ou

  • That's the question.

    Evil tongues say What does it matter, since both are arms of the USA. ;)

    • Nah. Looks (or has been made to look like) home-grown.

      TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's railroad system came under cyberattack on Friday, a semi-official news agency reported, with hackers posting fake messages about alleged train delays or cancellations on display boards at stations across the country.

      The hackers behind the strike were apparently trying to be funny, and along with messages saying âoelong delayed because of cyberattack" or âoecanceled,â they urged passengers to call for information, li

  • in kind?

  • Were they using Flash to control the trains?

  • Maybe running their infrastructure on pirated copies of unsupported Windows products isn't the best idea. RAI has been an easy target for a while, wouldn't be surprised if the attackers were anti-social children.
  • So since when are the Russians the enemy of Iran. Since when can you really tell who is behind any attack at all, cyber or real life? Since when do press releases really tell the truth when it comes to war?

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