HOSTILITY RAMPS UP Report: Iran cyberattacks target WH personnel

The United States has detected an increase in hacking attacks in recent weeks by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC ) on email and social-media accounts belonging to officials in the Obama administration officials in recent weeks, US officials said.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, has routinely conducted cyberwarfare against American government agencies for years. A few of the officers hacked embody these staff of the State Department’s Workplace of Iranian Affairs & its Bureau of Near Japanese Affairs. “U.S. …”

The timing of the hacks may be linked to the October arrest in Iran of the Iranian-American dual citizen Siamak Namazi, an advocate of normalization, and to a broader battle analysts believe is taking place within the Iranian regime over fears by hardliners close to Khamenei that the nuclear deal reached with world powers in July could herald liberalization and a warming of ties with the West.

The state TV report is the first official word about Nizar Zakka, who holds permanent-resident status in the U.S.

An Obama administration official said that the US continues to probe a possible connection to the arrest of Namazi. In exchange for drastically reducing Iran’s nuclear stockpile, the USA and other western nations agreed to reduce sanctions imposed on the nation.

Namazi’s friends and business associates said Revolutionary Guards confiscated his computer after ransacking his family’s home in Tehran, the Journal reported.

Iran has arrested other dual citizens recently, including Washington Post Tehran Bureau Chief Jason Rezaian, former FBI agent Robert Levinson, former US Marine Amir Hekmati, and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini.

Contrary to hopes expressed by President Obama and his administration that the nuclear deal would improve relations between the US and Iran, the Wall Street Journal sees these cyberattacks as evidence that “hard-line factions inside the regime, including the military and office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, haven’t moderated their hostility toward Washington”.

Meanwhile, hundreds took to Tehran streets yesterday in celebration of the Iranian hostage crisis anniversary and repeatedly chanted, “Death to America!”

A few of the Iranian cyberattacks were evidently built using data seized from Namazi’s computer.