Hackers based in Iran and implicated in attacks on the US and Western allies were behind a computer breach of Australia’s parliament and political parties, a US cyber research company has alleged.
The attacks were part of a global espionage campaign that cybersecurity companies say began last year and that has mostly targeted the Five Eyes intelligence alliance comprising the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. They think the attacks were retaliation for President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from a nuclear agreement with Iran.
The focus and pattern of the attack is compatible with the activity of an Iranian state actor connected to the Mabna Institute, said cybersecurity company Resecurity President Charles Yoo. The Mabna Institute is a technology company linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has blamed Mabna members, nine of whom were indicted in the US last year, for a hacking campaign that compromised universities, private companies, and government entities in the US and UK.
“After that, that group has been reshaped and now includes members from Syria and Palestine, working as ‘mercenaries,’” Mr Yoo said.
The global campaign has also been identified by National Security Agency analysts and FireEye, another cybersecurity company.
Read the article by Rob Taylor in The Australian (from The Wall Street Journal).