Iran International
Hardliners in Iran have used Tuesday's attack on the national fuel distribution system as an excuse to promote quicker restrictions on access to the Internet.
Kayhan, the flagship hardliner newspaper in Tehran, accused Israel and the United States Thursday of launching Tuesday’s apparent cyberattack on Iran’s gasoline stations in a bid to spark protests and riots.
Social media posts from hardliners said parliament should expedite the approval of a bill that will require the government to launch a national intranet − the National Information Network (NIN) − that would reduce the threat of cyberattacks from abroad.
It would also curb access to content deemed undesirable and could not be circumvented by the VPNs used by many Iranians to reach blocked websites.When the authorities shut down the Internet in 2019 during protests, the NIN was used by business for online activities, including cab services.
Tuesday’s attack affected all service stations across Iran, bringing the sales of cheap fuel, accessed through smart ration cards, to a standstill. The problem persisted at some service stations two days after the incident, meaning only unrationed fuel could be sold, at twice the 6 cents a liter price of rationed fuel.
Previous cyberattacks have affected both nuclear sites and Iranian railways.
How Tuesday’s attack was perpetrated remains unclear. Amir Nazemi, a former deputy telecommunications minister and head of information technology organization, tweeted Tuesday that connections within the fuel distribution network were isolated from the Internet. Ali Forouzandeh, spokesman of the oil ministry, also said Tuesday that the system was "offline."
Mehdi Saremifar, a Canada-based science and technology reporter, claimed Tuesday that the attack could not have been orchestrated outside the country. He told Iran International that Iran's gas stations rely on their own antenna and a dial-up connection to transmit data on smart fuel ration cards to the central server of the National Iranian Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC).
"Therefore, this attack was carried out in the closed system of NIORDC,” Saremifar said. “The person who perpetrated the attack probably had security clearance to access [the NIORDC server]… The perpetrator of the attack was from inside the system.”
Afshin Kolahi, head of New and Science-Based Businesses of Iran Chamber of commerce, told the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) Wednesday said that while service stations were independent from the Internet, their technology was very outdated.
Kolahi said it would be better to improve security systems that were not vulnerable to Internet attack rather than look at general restrictions of access, even if this suited the general approach of some principlists. "Their major aim is cutting people's connection to the cyberspace outside the country and their access to information," Kolahi said.
The newspaper, controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office, in an editorial called Israel and the US the leading suspects in what Iran has said was a cyberattack that for two days has paralyzed gas stations nationwide. The paper also said that creating a national intranet and cutting the country off from the Internet should be a top priority, similar to producing accurate missiles and military drones.
President Ebrahim Raisi had insisted on Wednesday that the cyberattack was meant to anger the people to create unrest in the country.
Iran’s interior minister Ahmad Vahidi said the incident was plot by “the enemy” before the anniversary of the 2019 November unrest, that has become a symbol of the regime’s brutality for opponents and critics. During a few days of nationwide protests in mid-November 2019, government security forces killed hundreds of protesters using military ammunition.
Vahidi said the enemy has plans for the anniversary and the disruption of the fuel system was the first act. However, he said that the public was calm and showed no reaction, which he said proved that people believe in the sincerity of the authorities.
Iran has not officially confirmed the source of the apparent cyberattack. The head of civil defense agency has said that authorities have not confirmed foreign involvement in the attack.
So far, only 700 gas stations out of around 4,000 have returned to normal operations. The incident affected smart cards that people use to buy rationed gasoline at half price. Pumps were not affected that gasoline was sold at higher prices.
Immediately as the disruption began, speculation started on Iranian social media that the incident was not a cyberattack and it was orchestrated by the government to raise gasoline prices, which are heavily subsidized in Iran. However, unlike November 2019 when a sudden hike in fuel prices led to unrest, this time the situation was calm.
President Raisi has taken credit for the peaceful handling of the situation and hardliners have compared it with 2019 when the fuel price hike was said to have been so sudden that it triggered immediate protests.
Fereydun Abbasi, a member of parliament’s energy committee and a former head of Iran’s nuclear energy agency said the cyberattack by “the enemy” was meant “to anger the people” to create unrest. He urged that major vulnerable points in the country should be defended. He added that the enemy uses its best scientists to disrupt people’s lives and will launch new attacks with novel plans.
Iran has experienced several major cyberattacks and sabotage attacks since July 2020. Its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz was targeted twice with devastating effect and a few months ago its railroad system was crippled by a cyberattack. Both Iran as well as foreign experts and media have said Israel was behind the attacks, but no one has claimed responsibility. But Israel has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to produce nuclear weapons and is ready to use even military force.
When protest escalated in the press and on the state television and attracted everyone's attention with a mixture of jokes and sarcasm, mayor Alireza Zakani said that his son-in-law, Hossein Haydari is supposed to work for free.
Zakani was a hardline member of parliament before becoming a candidate in the June presidential election and lost. The newly elected city council, also with a majority of hardliners reluctantly appointed him mayor in August.
In a surprising development, the state television aired footage dating back to the June presidential election which showed Zakani promising as that he will not employ his relatives if he is elected President. The video went viral on social media in a matter of minutes.
He was not elected president, but he gave jobs to his relatives and his friends' relatives and even the daughter-in-law of an influential cleric in Shiraz, possibly hoping to use the cleric's influence in case political waters got rough, the media reminded.
Many unemployed social media users as well as those not happy with their jobs regretted that they should have more carefully chosen their fathers-in-law rather than being picky about choosing their wives.
It appears that following recent changes in the management of state television, transparency and exposing nepotism and corruption is on its agenda, at least depending on who the target of criticism might be.
The new approach of reporting on such cases might be an attempt to restore credibility after years of sweeping scandals under the rug.
The public knows that appointing relatives to senior government posts is not just securing a job for them, but the influence and opportunity of networking and illicit incomes that come with the position.
The founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini gave top jobs at the government and the Judiciary to his sons-in-law. In Iran under Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader, his relatives including current Majles Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and former Majles Speaker Gholamali Haddad Adel have always had top positions in the government.
Reformist daily Sharq on Wednesday, October 27 listed some of the sons-in-law in top positions. One who has been appointed most recently is Mehdi Ahmadi, a son-in-law of Mohsen Rezaei, Vice President for economic affairs. Ahmadi was appointed as the CEO of Bank Saderat Iran, one of the most prominent financial institutions in the country. However, he told Sharq that he has quit his new job “after he consulted the Koran.” Ahmadi, who is also a relative of Ghalibaf, is still a board member and acting CEO of Bank Shahr.
Another top son-in-law was Ali Ashraf Riahi the husband of a former industry minister's daughter. He fled the country after being convicted in a major financial corruption case, Sharq wrote.
Former President Hassan Rouhani's son-in-law Kambiz Mehdizadeh Farsad had to quit his job as deputy industry minister after critics charged that his appointment to the post was illegitimate. In his resignation letter, Farsad said he would return to his former "trench" as a research scientist.
Another controversial son-in-law was Mohammad Hadi Razavi, who is married to one of the daughters of Rouhani's former labor minister Mohammad Shariatmadari. When the son-in-law was being tried in a major financial corruption case, Shariatmadari said, "No one can blackmail me even if they slaughter my child." Razavi was eventually sentenced to 20 years in jail for disrupting the country's economic order.
Haddad Adel's son-in-law Ruhollah Rahmani had to resign his top position at the ministry of communication for quietly holding US citizenship. Haddad had said on state TV: "My son-in-law is a citizen of America and comes from a family that nurtures martyrs." Haddad's other son-in-law is Khamenei's son Mojtaba.
Former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's brother-in-law Mehdi Khorshidi was first appointed as the head of Iran's Standardization Organization. His appointment was cancelled after the Majles protested, but one of Ahmadinejad's vice presidents appointed him as an adviser.