A group of hackers closely linked to the Iranian opposition organization Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) have claimed responsibility for a major breach of 75 electronic servers associated with numerous websites linked to the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
This breach marks the most recent in a series of cyberattacks aimed at Iranian government institutions and facilities.
The hacktivist group ‘Uprising till Overthrow', according to its Telegram account, released hundreds of identification documents, minutes of meetings, the ministry’s correspondence, phone numbers of ministry officials, and the names of 11,000 employees of the foreign ministry, among others.
Iranian authorities have not commented on the documents and information leaked by the group. However, the website of the Iranian Foreign Ministry experienced an outage for several hours following the announcement of the cyberattack.
Since Sunday morning, the Iranian Foreign Ministry's website has displayed a message indicating that it is undergoing routine maintenance and updates that are expected to be completed in a few minutes.
The hackers have revealed that they obtained the documents by breaching 75 servers belonging to the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s e-network.
They indicated that the ministry’s main server, which has a capacity of 50 terabytes, was also breached.
The documents expose the “internal workflow” and “infrastructure” of the ministry.
Through their Twitter account, the hackers claimed to have infiltrated 210 websites within the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s system.
Among the documents released is a list of members of the diplomatic corps abroad, most of whom are due to end their missions before the current Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian took office.
One document includes the names of diplomats representing the Basij forces affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard.
A picture of Amir-Abdollahian’s membership card in the Basij forces, the paramilitary arm of the Revolutionary Guard, surfaced in the leaked documents.
A Twitter account affiliated with the hackers wrote that “Amir-Abdollahian is a former member of the Revolutionary Guard and Quds Force, and currently an active member of the Basij forces.”
In addition, the hackers leaked a picture of the passport of Ali Shamkhani, who is the Secretary-General of the Iranian National Security Council, along with several of his assistants and security team.
The leaked documents provide extensive information about various departments and units within the Iranian Foreign Ministry, including communication channels with other agencies and decision-making centers. Additionally, the documents reveal details such as the types of vehicles used by diplomats and their mobile phone numbers.
