US, Israel behind cyberattack on Iran gas stations: Top General

“We analyzed two incidents; one of them was the attack on Shahid Rajaee port, and the other the attack on the railways,” said Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali in a televised interview.

“The two were similar [to the cyberattack on gas stations] in terms of the model of the attack,” he added.

“We believe the masterminds of those cyberattacks are definitely our enemies, i.e., the Americans and the Zionist regime [of Israel],” the top general noted.

However, he added, “We are reviewing technical information and cannot express our final viewpoint now,” he said.

“When somebody wants to attack you at the middleware or hardware level, they should be able to infiltrate into, and have access to the information in the embedded system,” he explained.

He added the one who is able to do this is usually the country or company which has developed that system.

He expounded on the missions of the Passive Defense Organization, saying one of the last measures adopted by the organization is to study the recent cyberattack on the country’s gas stations as well as moves to ensure the security of the nation’s cyber-infrastructure.

The top general said the hacking attack on the pumps took place at the middleware level, “which is a very complicated attack and difficult to counter.”

“The cyberattack on billboards was also connected to the attack on the fuel distribution system,” he noted.

He said elements inside the country may have been involved in the cyberattacks, adding security authorities are probing the issue.