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"It is not a surprise at all", American experts: Why Iran attacked Albania

2022-09-07 21:48:41Politikë SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX
"It is not a surprise at all", American experts: Why Iran attacked
American experts

Iran's cyber attack on Albania is not a surprise at all, experts interviewed by the Voice of America estimate, and it has to do with the fact that Albania has sheltered the Iranian MEK dissident group.

John Holtquist, a data protection expert from the company "Mondiant", says that the information confirmed today by the Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, has been known since August, when the company he works for published a report that blamed Iran.

At the beginning of August, we issued a report where we say that Iran was behind the attack on Albania - John Holtquist

"At the beginning of August, we issued a report where we say that Iran was behind the attack on Albania. At that time, no one knew who did the attack, while Iran took measures to make the attack look like it was carried out by a group of "hackers" and not by the Iranian state," John Holtquist from "Mondiant" told VOA.

The cyber attack was launched on July 15, while three days later the Albanian government announced that due to the attack "access to public services offered through the Internet and other government services have been temporarily closed".

On July 22, on the computer screens, which were now blocked by the cyber attack, this message appeared: "Why should our taxes be spent for the benefit of the terrorists of DURRUS?" implying that the case had to do with the shelter in Albania of thousands of members of the Iranian mujahid group "MEK" (Mujahedeen-e-Khalq).

"It is not a surprise at all", American experts: Why Iran attacked
Taken from the "Mondiant" report - The Iranian cyber attack virus also contained this message

The Iranian dissidents are sheltered in the town of Manez, in the district of Durrës.

On July 23 and 24, the "Free Iran World Summit" conference was planned to be held there, where opponents of the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran were expected to participate. The summit, however, was not held due to a "threat of a terrorist attack".

Amir Rashidi from the "Miaan" organization, whose expertise also includes Iran's cyber attacks, says that Iran actually retaliated against cyber attacks that were previously carried out against Iran and for which MEK mujahedin unofficially took responsibility.

"There have been attacks on gas pumps, Iran's steel industry in the past, attacks that not only damaged the financial sector of those industries, but also Iran's reputation. It didn't surprise me at all that Iran wanted to respond to these cyber attacks. Most of the time MEK members, unofficially, have taken responsibility" - Mr. Rashidi said in the interview for the Voice of America.

He added that by harboring MEK dissidents, Albania is offering support to people who have attacked Iran.

"The Albanian Prime Minister said that the Iranian attack was trying to steal information and cause damage to the infrastructure. The theft of information is probably related to Iran's efforts to find the identity of MEK members, while the attacks on infrastructure are related to some kind of Iranian response to Albania."

The American expert, John Holtquist from the company "Mandiant" evaluates as "very powerful" the reaction of the Albanian government to the termination of diplomatic relations with Tehran.

"We have done many things in this space to oppose countries like Iran, or Russia, and many of these actions have not had results. We are in an election year in the US and expect Iran and Russia to act as they have done before. I do not believe that they will stop with these actions. Maybe such a strong action (of the Albanian government), as Albania did, maybe encourages them to rethink their actions" - said Mr. Holtquist.

Another cyber security expert with the "Miaan" group, Amir Rashidi, does not believe that today's decision by the Albanian government will stop Iran from making such attacks in the future.

"Albania is not a country that Iran sees as a country with which it needs to communicate, it is not a country like France or Britain. So Iran will not know about the consequences and I do not believe that these attacks will stop".

While Mr. Holtquist says that small NATO member countries seem to have been targeted by cyber attacks recently.

"There have been two attacks so far, which were made against small NATO countries. It was the attack on Montenegro, although it does not seem to have been carried out by Iran, but it shows that these small countries face challenges to face this attack."

According to Mr. Holtquist "it must be understood that this war is not fought alone" and that in this confrontation "the United States can help a lot" including the private sector and the cyber security industry./ VOA


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