Iran Hacks US Spy Sites 149
Posted
by
CmdrTaco
from the because-they-can dept.
from the because-they-can dept.
superapecommando writes "Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps hacked into 29 websites affiliated with US espionage networks, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported on Sunday. 'The hacked websites acted against Iran's national security under the cover of human rights activities,' Fars reported. It did not disclose details of the attacks.
The Internet has been used by Iranian opposition groups who contested the results of last year's elections there to organize demonstrations and share information about protests and arrests. The Revolutionary Guards is a military group that was founded after Iran's 1979 revolution. The group includes conventional army, navy, air force, and intelligence units, as well as the Basij paramilitary force and various business units."
Not that I put a lot of trust in *our* reports (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm usually the first one to blame America when I see slanted reporting that seemingly puts our "enemies" in a very poor light, but this time I think we are looking at some pretty piss-poor Iranian folly.
Websites are passive. They respond to clients. They do not strike out on their own. So "hacking" them and shutting them down isn't really any sort of solution at all.
The Basij are a pretty rough security force compared to any typical military or paramilitary group. Despite their unprofessionalism, they are at the core of Iranian governmental security. They were instrumental in shutting down the election protests last year.
Re:Not 29 Web Sites (Score:4, Insightful)
Doesn't really matter, they could have been CIA fronts of they could have been genuine human rights stuff.
Either way the activists identified(or possibly spies) are going to be shot as traitors or spies.
Re:Because US was using twitter as a weapon...? (Score:3, Insightful)
There is no cyberwar but there is certainly a PR war.
Re:Not that I put a lot of trust in *our* reports (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:When are they (Score:3, Insightful)
Most of these sites redirected to one site. But in all cases, they are minor sites run by random people, just like 1,000,000,000's of others on the Interwebs with negligable or non-existent "security". These are mostly "here today, gone tomorow" type web sites. This hardly qualifies as serious hacking of secure government-backed web sites.
This is what's called "propaganda".
Re:Bad Article Title (Score:5, Insightful)
The Iranian Government has been desperate to tie the current protests to US involvement. Without that connection they are beating up their own people, with the connection they are stopping "the great satan" from interfering in their internal affairs. I don't know why this surprises anyone, they put people to death a few weeks ago by saying they were working for the west. They are desperate to convince their own public that these election protests have been orchestrated by the US, in fact I would go so far as to say that the more paranoid members of their government are convinced of such and will do anything including manufacturing evidence of such to convince the general public they are right.
If these protests are all internally comprised they are no better than the shah, and regardless of how they feel about things they don't want to have themselves compared to him. They greatly fear that what happened to the shah could happen to them, they must convince everyone that the US is involved so they justify their own repressive actions.
Re:Amazing (Score:3, Insightful)
FTFA:
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Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI). Information previously available on the site included a report on 400 Iranian opposition protesters that were arrested on 4 November, 2009, an Iranian holiday that marks the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran, according to a cached version of the site.
It was not clear whether HRAI had ties to US intelligence organisations or whether the Fars report labeled them as such due to their apparent sympathy for opposition protesters. The Fars report did not tie any of the websites to a specific US government entity.
This is not the opening salvo of a cyber war you were looking for, move along.
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Its of course plausible that these were CIA fronts, but I'm going to go with "excuse to silence some critics", much like how they say every single one of the millions of protesters in Iran is a paid US operative dedicated to overthrowing the perfect religious dictatorship that no one would possibly be unhappy with.
Re:Worst summary ever (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Amazing (Score:3, Insightful)
Mod parent informative please.
Just because Fars said it was a "us spy website" doesn't make it so, and in fact should lead one to believe it probably wasn't.
you mean "ALLEGED" (Score:5, Insightful)
Never have I seen an article title more in need of the word "Alleged"
As in: Iran Hacks ALLEGED US Spy Sites
Like you are going to believe that "Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency" isn't going to make unsubstantiated claims? (I know double negative, but here it ain't wrong).
Re:Worst summary ever (Score:4, Insightful)
Fox also decides what the news is rather than reporting it. They just happen to be attached to the Republican party rather than to the government in general.
Re:Worst summary ever (Score:1, Insightful)
First off, Fars news is the equivalent of Fox News in the US. They decide the news before it happens.
Last time I checked Fars was the mouthpiece of the Iranian government, and Fox has been extremely critical of the current administration and congress. Your analogy is flawed.
You setup a strawman analogy to mischaracterize.
Thanks for contributing nothing to the discussion.
Re:Not that I put a lot of trust in *our* reports (Score:5, Insightful)
An even more accurate headline: "Iranian government takes down human rights websites, accusing them of 'espionage'."
Re:Worst summary ever (Score:3, Insightful)
It's amazing how much reality distortion can be created just by being selective in what is reported and what spin is put on it. "Man kills Seven in shootout" (While ducking to avoid a crossfire in a shootout the man stepped on some ants) or "LEAK DISCOVERED AT NUCLEAR PLANT" (in a toilet located in the administrative building).
That's the problem, some (these days, most) news organizations don't just pick and choose just the stories, but what facts related to the stories that they report.