Israeli cybersecurity firms ClearSky and Profero claim to have stopped an Iranian cyberattack in September termed "Operation Quicksand." The firms described the targets as "prominent Israeli organizations." According to a report by the firms, an Iranian group dubbed "MuddyWater" that has contracted for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) sent malware to Israeli organizations in an effort to cause damage rather than steal data. The report noted that the hackers in the September attack employed techniques similar to those used during other cyberattacks in the Middle East, including a 2012 attack on Saudi Arabia attributed to Iran. According to a database maintained by a German research institute, MuddyWater, also known as Static Kitten, has been known to focus on espionage and state-level attacks.
News Briefs
October 19, 2020
-- Haaretz
October 18, 2020
A United Nations arms embargo on Iran has expired as planned under the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers. The end of the embargo enables Iran to import and export conventional weapons under international law. However, the United States claims that the embargo remains in effect because U.S. diplomats triggered the "snapback" provision of the nuclear agreement under which all previous international sanctions on Iran, including the arms embargo, are reinstated. The U.N. Security Council rejected U.S. standing to trigger snapback and voted against an extension of the arms embargo. The United States has threaten to sanction any person or company that sell weapons to Iran. In 2019, a U.S. intelligence agency reported that Iran might seek to purchase Russian Su-30 fighter jets, Yak-130 trainer aircraft, and T-90 tanks as well as the Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile system and Bastian coastal defense system.
-- Associated Press
October 15, 2020
Iranian businessman Seyed Sajjad Shahidian was sentenced to 23 months in prison for violating U.S. sanctions on Iran. A U.S. district court in Minneapolis sentenced the 33-year-old to time served. Shahidian used a company that he founded and led, Payment24, to circumvent U.S. sanctions between 2009 and 2018. Payment24 relied on fake passports and other forged documents to register accounts with Payoneer and PayPal and process millions of dollars in transactions. Shahidian also flouted trade restrictions on Iran by falsifying the destination of U.S.-origin goods. British authorities arrested Shahidian in London in November 2018, and extradited him to the United States in May 2020. He pleaded guilty on June 18, 2020.
-- The Star Tribune
October 10, 2020
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), assesses that Iran has yet to amass a "significant quantity" of enriched uranium, which he defined as "the minimum amount of enriched uranium or plutonium needed to make an atomic bomb." However, he noted that Iran continues to accumulate enriched uranium "to a much higher degree than they have committed themselves to" under the 2015 nuclear agreement.
-- Reuters
October 2, 2020
The intelligence agency for the German state of Hesse reports that Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and Syria tried to "acquire and distribute" weapons of mass destruction technology using transport routes via "third countries that are not subject to special embargo regulations." According to the report, which covers events in 2019, these countries might have obtained expertise in uranium enrichment and biological and chemical processes by exploiting research and academic cooperation. The report also alleges that China, Iran, and Russia might have conducted cyber operations targeting financial institutions in the city of Frankfurt. According to the report, Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and an intelligence service run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) remain active in Germany.
-- The Jerusalem Post
September 30, 2020
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspected the second of two sites in Iran suspected of involvement in the country's pre-2003 nuclear activities, when Iran had a coordinated nuclear weapons program. The IAEA will send environmental samples from the site to a lab to scan for traces of nuclear material. Iran blocked IAEA access to both sites for seven months, only relenting in August.
-- Al Jazeera
September 29, 2020
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) held an exhibition featuring 15 types of missiles, including the Dezful, Emad, Fateh, Khorramshahr, Nazeat, Qadr, Ra'ad 500, Sajil, Scud, Shahab, and Zlfiqar models. The exhibition also included mobile missile launchers, radar units, and the Ababil, Karar, Shahed, and Saegeh families of Iranian drones as well as captured U.S.-made drones, such as a RQ-170 Sentinel that Iran shot down in 2011.
-- The Jerusalem Post
September 28, 2020
The Forest, one of three Iranian oil tankers in a flotilla delivering hundreds of thousands of barrels of fuel to Venezuela, entered Venezuelan waters on its way to the El Palito refinery port. The other two oil tankers, the Faxon and the Fortune, appeared set to arrive in Venezuela in several days. General Yahya Rahim-Safavi, a military advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed that Venezuela had repaid Iran by sending gold bars by plane.
-- Bloomberg
September 24, 2020
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) inaugurated the Shaheed Rahbari military base near the Iranian city of Sirik, which sits on the Strait of Hormuz. Major General Hossein Salami, the head of the IRGC, attended the ceremony. Iran's state-owned media reported that the base, which was under construction for six years, would give Iran "full control" of vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the IRGC also flew a drone over the U.S.S. Nimitz, an aircraft carrier transiting the Strait.
-- Bloomberg
September 24, 2020
According to intelligence reports, Iran is procuring advanced engine technology used in drones from Chinese manufacturers. The technology is smuggled from Xiamen, in China, to Mombasa, Kenya, then sent to Salalah, Oman, from where the technology is sent on to Houthi strongholds in Yemen. This procurement pattern is a shift from previous efforts by Iran to obtain miniature engines from small German manufacturers, including the successful procurement of 42 twin-cylinder propeller motors in 2015 that were routed through Athens to Tehran. Such engines were found in drones used by the Houthis in attacks on Saudi Arabia. Their sale to Iran was subsequently banned by the German government. Iran has used a range of Dutch and German engines in its drones to boost domestic production.
-- The National