ISTANBUL — Fuel sales were disrupted at gas stations across Iran Tuesday, after what officials said was a cyberattack crippled a system that allows consumers to buy subsidized fuel using government-issued cards, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said.
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“The disruption in the intelligent fuel system caused the fuel cards in the system not to be identified,” IRNA said. The cause was a “cyberattack, which technical experts are solving,” the agency said.
Photographs of long lines forming at gas stations were posted on Iranian news sites, which carried hourly coverage of the crisis. Officials said they were restoring the distribution network by disabling the subsidy system, station by station, and said that fuel remained available at the “free” rate — double the unsubsidized rate.
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“I‘ve been to 10 gas stations, they can’t sell gas, even with the free market price,” one customer said in a video posted by IRNA. A gas station attendant in the video said that the smart-card system had been down since 11 a.m. “We can only sell fuel through this system. It’s actually the system that loosens the nozzle so cars can receive fuel.”
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Iran has been a frequent target of cyberattacks in recent years, including state-sponsored attacks on its atomic energy program and other critical infrastructure and hacks attributed to shadowy groups apparently aiming to expose abuses by the government. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Tuesday’s attack.
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In August a hacker group calling itself “The Justice of Ali,” released footage from security cameras showing guards beating and kicking prisoners at Evin prison, a notorious detention facility that holds political detainees and foreigners. The dissemination of the footage prompted a rare apology from Iran’s prison authority.
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Last year, shipping traffic at one of Iran’s major ports came to an abrupt halt after computers that regulated traffic of vessels, trucks and other goods crashed. Foreign government officials, including those of the United States, have said that hack — like others targeting Iran’s nuclear program — originated with Israel, Iran’s main regional adversary.
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Likewise, the United States, Israel and other western governments have accused Iran or Iranian-linked groups of hacking public and private computer systems in their countries.
Check Point Software Technologies, an Israeli-American cybersecurity firm, attributed an attack in July on Iran’s train system to a group called Indra, which it said self-identified as an Iranian opposition entity. The hackers disrupted train services, brought down the website of Iran’s transport ministry and infiltrated display electronic billboards in train stations, the firm said.
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Billboards were also hacked in the fuel-station attack Tuesday, including in the city of Isfahan, where signs, including above busy motorways, displayed messages reading, “Khamenei, where is our gas,” according to the Mehr News Agency and the BBC, referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Iran’s supreme leader.
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The chaos at pumping stations stirred speculation that the hack was aimed to coincide with the two-year anniversary of nationwide protests against the government after it abruptly raised fuel prices in November 2019.
The resulting unrest, reflecting anger at the worsening economy and the bite of U.S.-sanctions, led the deaths of more than 300 people, amid a ruthless crackdown by the security forces, according to Amnesty International.
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