Iran Pays Millions in Ransom to End Cyberattack on Banks

Iranians at a bank branch in Tehran (IRNA)
Iranians at a bank branch in Tehran (IRNA)
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Iran Pays Millions in Ransom to End Cyberattack on Banks

Iranians at a bank branch in Tehran (IRNA)
Iranians at a bank branch in Tehran (IRNA)

A massive cyberattack that hit Iran last month threatened the stability of its banking system and forced the country's regime to agree to a ransom deal of millions of dollars, POLITICO reported on Thursday.

The newspaper said an Iranian firm paid at least $3 million in ransom last month to stop an anonymous group of hackers from releasing individual account data from as many as 20 domestic banks in what appears to be the worst cyberattack the country has seen, quoting industry analysts and western officials briefed on the matter.

A group known as IRLeaks, which has a history of hacking Iranian companies, was likely behind the breach, the officials said.

The hackers are said to have initially threatened to sell the data they collected, which included the personal account and credit card data of millions of Iranians, on the dark web unless they received $10 million in cryptocurrency, but later settled on a smaller sum.

Iran’s authoritarian regime pushed for a deal, fearing that word of the data theft would destabilize the country’s already-wobbly financial system, which is under intense strain amid the international sanctions the country faces, the officials said.

Iran never acknowledged the mid-August breach, which forced banks to shut down cash machines across the country.

IRleaks entered the banks’ servers via a company called Tosan, which provides data and other digital services to Iran’s financial sector, the officials said.

Using Tosan, the hackers appear to have siphoned data from both private banks and Iran’s central bank. Of Iran’s 29 active credit institutions, as many as 20 were hit, including the Bank of Industry and Mines and the Post Bank of Iran.

Though the attack was reported at the time by Iran International, an opposition news outlet, neither the suspected hackers nor the ransom demands were disclosed.

Iran’s supreme leader delivered a cryptic message in the wake of the attack, blaming the US and Israel for “spreading fear among our people,” without acknowledging the country’s banks were under assault.

Despite the growing tensions between Iran and both the US and Israel, people familiar with the Iranian banking hack told POLITICO that IRLeaks is affiliated with neither the US nor Israel.



Dutch Tighten Controls on Military and Dual Use Exports to Israel

Containers in the Port of Rotterdam are seen in Rotterdam, Netherlands, November 1, 2022. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/File Photo
Containers in the Port of Rotterdam are seen in Rotterdam, Netherlands, November 1, 2022. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/File Photo
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Dutch Tighten Controls on Military and Dual Use Exports to Israel

Containers in the Port of Rotterdam are seen in Rotterdam, Netherlands, November 1, 2022. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/File Photo
Containers in the Port of Rotterdam are seen in Rotterdam, Netherlands, November 1, 2022. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw/File Photo

The Dutch government said on Monday it had tightened export controls for all military and 'dual use' goods destined for Israel.

All direct exports and the transit of these goods to Israel will be checked to see if they comply with European regulations, and will no longer be covered by general export licences, the government said in a letter to parliament.

"This is desirable considering the security situation in Israel, the Palestinian territories and the wider region," foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp and trade minister Reinette Klever wrote, Reuters reported.

"Exporters will still be able to request permits, that will then be checked against European regulations."

The government said no military goods for Israel had been exported from the Netherlands under a general permit since Israel started its war in Gaza following the attacks by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

It said that the general licence for the export of "low risk information security goods", such as routers for network security, was frequently used for export to Israel.

It estimated that between 50 and 100 permits for the export of those goods would now have to be requested on an individual basis.

A Dutch court last year ordered the government to block all exports of F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel over concerns they were being used to violate international law during the war in Gaza.