Iran's rail service hacked with fake delay messages urging users to call Khamenei

Iran’s railroad service became a victim of a cyberattack on July 9 with hackers posting fake delay messages or cancellations on display boards at stations across the country. A semi-official news agency in Iran reported that the hackers had sent messages such as “long delayed because of cyberattack” or “cancelled” on the boards. Further, they also urged the passengers to call for information on a number that belonged to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Fars news agency also stated in the report that the hack led to “unprecedented chaos” at the railway stations.

Till now, no group has taken the responsibility for the hack. Earlier on Friday, the news agency had also reported that trains across Iran had lost their electronic tracking system but it was not immediately clear if that was also part of the massive cyberattack. Reportedly, Fars then removed its report and instead quoted the spokesperson of the state railway company Sadegh Sekri saying “the disruption” did not cause any problem for the normal functioning of the rail services. 

Back in 2019, multiple delays occurred in train services due to an error in the railway company’s computer. In December of that same year, Iran’s telecommunications ministry had said that the country had defused a major cyberattack on unspecified “electronic infrastructure.” However, the officials did not provide any more details regarding the purported attack. 

Unclear if attack caused any disruption in system

As per The Associated Press report, it was not immediately clear if the latest reported attack caused any disruptions in Iran’s computer and internet systems and whether it was the most recent incident in the United States and Iran’s cyber operations targeting the other. Reportedly, Iran has already disconnected most of its infrastructure from the internet after the Stuxnet computer virus which in Iran is believed to be a product of US-Israeli collaboration. In the late 2000s, the same virus had disrupted thousands of Iranian centrifuges in the country’s nuclear sites.

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