Cyberattack Targets Iran Parliament Websites

A hacking group affiliated with the Iranian opposition Mojehadin-e-Khlaq Organization (MKO) seized documents and data from the Iranian parliament after hacking the servers of the official website in the latest cyberattack targeting public facilities.

Khane Mellat (ICANA.ir) news agency websites were also inaccessible and subject to a cyberattack.

A hacking group called "Uprising Till Overthrow" claimed credit for the cyberattack.

The group explained that it had accessed the websites of the Iranian parliament, the library, and the documentation and research center in the Iranian parliament, indicating that it had obtained information and documents.

During the first hours, the group published documents containing letters and salary records of 226 lawmakers, including a letter from the head of the Iranian Passive Defense Organization to the Speaker about the threats facing Iran's nuclear facilities.

The ILNA Labor Agency reported that hackers published pictures of the leaders of the Mujahideen-e-Khalq group on the Khane Mellat website.

The hacking of the Iranian parliament's website comes ten days before the legislative election scheduled for March 1.

The Public Relations Department of the Parliament confirmed that its websites had been subjected to electronic hacking and said in a statement that the technical team is investigating the disruption of the website and will announce the results later.

"The websites of the parliament and Khane Mellat (ICANA.ir) news agency have been hacked and become unavailable since this morning due to cyberattacks," the official IRNA news agency reported.

The statement said that the scale of the problem is under investigation by expert technical teams.

The statement referred to documents published moments after the site was hacked, saying the preliminary investigation of these images shows that some of these documents have been tampered with and cannot be verified.

Parliament suggested that the hackers obtained some documents during a "limited" hacking operation and "manipulated" them.

The statement cited the documents revealing the lawmakers' salaries, saying they include unrealistic final figures not found in parliament's documents.

Unpublished documents from the draft general budget included a copy of the passport of Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and correspondence with the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the head of the Supreme National Security Council, Ali Akbar Ahmadian, and Chief of Staff Mohammad Bagheri.

The documents also included data from the protection team for the website, consisting of a rapid intervention force of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and a Basij unit.

In May last year, the group announced the hacking of 75 electronic servers from dozens of websites affiliated with the Foreign Ministry.

The group made available the data of many members of the Iranian diplomatic apparatus, including the data and pseudonyms.

The hackers published draft agreements and reports of phone calls conducted by former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the current Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.

Last December 26, the group published a document of recommendations regarding a meeting on Yemen, the peace path, and the international sanctions committee.

The group disseminated, via its Telegram channel, an unofficial draft of 44 pages, including the negotiations that President Ebrahim Raisi conducted in Damascus with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, last May.

Iran classifies the Mujahideen-e-Khalq group as a terrorist organization, and it is one of the leftist groups that participated in the 1979 revolution but later rejected the Supreme Leadership and announced its defection from the regime.

Iran accused the group of receiving Israeli support in carrying out cyberattacks.

An Iranian cyberattack on government facilities in Albania, where a large MKO group resides, led to a diplomatic rupture between Tehran and Tirana in September 2022.

Albania, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), thwarted a cyberattack, and as a result, the US imposed sanctions on the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and the minister, Esmaeil Khatib.

A staggering 281 aid workers have been killed around the world so far this year, making 2024 the deadliest year for humanitarians, the UN aid chief said Friday.
"Humanitarian workers are being killed at an unprecedented rate, their courage and humanity being met with bullets and bombs," said Tom Fletcher, the United Nations' new under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.
With more than a month left to go of 2024, the "grim milestone was reached", he said, after 280 humanitarians were killed across 33 countries during all of 2023.
"This violence is unconscionable and devastating to aid operations," Fletcher said.
Israel's devastating war in Gaza was driving up the numbers, his office said, with 333 aid workers killed there -- most from the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA -- since Hamas's October 7, 2023 attacks, which sparked the war, AFP reported.
"States and parties to conflict must protect humanitarians, uphold international law, prosecute those responsible, and call time on this era of impunity," Fletcher said.
Aid workers were subject to kidnappings, injuries, harassment and arbitrary detention in a range of countries, his office said, including Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Ukraine.
The majority of deaths involve local staff working with non-governmental organizations, UN agencies and the Red Cross Red Crescent movement, Fletcher's office said.
"Violence against humanitarian personnel is part of a broader trend of harm to civilians in conflict zones," it warned.
"Last year, more than 33,000 civilian deaths were recorded in 14 armed conflicts -- a staggering 72 per cent increase from 2022."
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution last May in response to the surging violence and threats against aid workers.
The text called for recommendations from the UN chief -- set to be presented at a council meeting next week -- on measures to prevent and respond to such incidents and to increase protection for humanitarian staff and accountability for abuses.

Cyberattack Targets Iran Parliament Websites