Aug. 29 – An Iranian hacking group has claimed that it carried out one of the largest ever cyber attacks on the Islamic Republic of Iran’s commercial tankers and cargo ships, according to a report by opposition news agency Iran International.
The group, known as Lab-Dookhtegan, or Sewn Lips, said it had disabled communications on more than 60 vessels, bypassing security measures and hacking into the operating systems of the state-owned shipping companies.
The companies were previously sanctioned by the U.S. over claims that they had assisted the Quds Force, a key military unit which makes up part of the regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Trump administration confirmed that it had fired the Pentagon’s intelligence agency chief, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, following criticisms by the White House of a Pentagon report which assessed the impact of U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites.
While Washington has not offered a reason for the dismissal, U.S. President Donald Trump called the report “flat out wrong” after it suggested that the damage was less extensive than previously thought.
Trump had suggested the strikes had “completely destroyed” Iran’s nuclear plants and that the report had been made on “low intelligence.”
And the majority of Iranians in Iran now oppose the Islamic Republic, according to a survey produced by the Netherlands-based Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran (GAMAAN).
The survey found that an estimated 70 percent of Iranians opposed the continuation of the Islamic Republic, while 89 percent of participants supported democracy over Iran’s current theocratic government.
The survey also noted that opposition to the Islamic Republic was higher among young people, urban residents and those with a higher level of education.
