According to a report by Wall Street Journal published on September 27, the US officials, whose names were not mentioned in the report, claimed cyber attacks against the Navy computer systems had been carried out by hackers affiliated with the Islamic Republic’s government.
The report added however that, while US military officials have been briefed on the “intrusions,” the “Pentagon wouldn’t confirm the alleged Iranian hacks.”
The unsubstantiated allegation comes while Iran has been the target of several cyber attacks itself.
In June 2012, a report by the Washington Post said the US and the Israeli regime had cooperated in creating the computer virus Flame to spy on Iran. US National Security Agency, the CIA and the Israeli military worked together to create the Flame virus, the paper added.
In addition, the New York Times also revealed in the same month that US President Barack Obama secretly ordered a cyber attack with the Stuxnet computer virus against Iran in 2010 to sabotage the country’s nuclear energy program.
The paper also confirmed that the Stuxnet virus was created with the help of a secret Israeli intelligence unit.
Iranian experts, however, detected the malware in time, averting any damage to the country's industrial sites and resources.
Following the attacks, Iran launched a cyber defense headquarters tasked with preventing computer worms from breaking into or stealing data from the country’s maximum security networks, including nuclear facilities, power plants, data centers, and banks.
