Iranian government's websites defaced with 'death to Khameini' caption by hackers: Report

An unknown hacker group, on Friday, 26 November, defaced several Iranian government websites, including the website of Tehran’s Justice Ministry, Centre for Mosque Affairs, and the Computer Research Centre of Islamic Sciences, with captions "death to Khameini, greetings to Rajavi.” The hackers referred to Iran's supreme leader and the leader of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), the Israeli media outlets reported on Friday. MEK is an Iranian opposition movement in exile that battled the Former Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the 1960s and was once allied to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. 

Shortly after the incident, Iran’s Ministry of Justice notified its traffic that the site is being updated, while the government websites compromised immediately took down the controversial message. No individual or group has claimed responsibility, according to Sputnik. A senior Iranian cleric Ahmad Alamolhoda, however, told the IRNA news agency that the cyber attack must have been conducted by MEK’s cyber element. Meanwhile, a separate hacker group "Hooshyarane Vatan" had claimed responsibility for attacking Mahan Air's airline database, an airline that has links with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The attack comes as Iran gears up for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiations in Vienna in the coming weeks. 

US threatens escalation With Tehran as it prepares for JCPOA talks 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi visited Iran earlier this week and told the nuclear watchdog’s 35-member Board of Governors that the meeting with Tehran was “inconclusive” ahead of the JCPOA negotiations. US board members have now threatened “to confront” Islamic Republic if it “does not cooperate.” Grossi in his report on verification and monitoring in the Islamic Republic of Iran told the board members at a meeting that Iran has failed to respond to the IAEA’s requests for access to its monitoring equipment and “was seriously compromising the agency’s technical capability for the verification and monitoring of its nuclear-related commitments.” However, Mohammad Eslami, the Head of Atomic Energy Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran (AEOI), announced at a joint press conference that IAEA needed to resolve technical issues with Tehran "without politicising such matters."