Iran’s internet has been cut off nationwide after a massive attack on Israel. The country’s internet service was severely disrupted on Wednesday evening. NetBlocks, an NGO that monitors internet activity, reported the outage. They said Iran’s internet was almost completely down.
The disruption came after days of heightened military tension between Iran and Israel. Several Iranian websites, including news agencies IRNA and Fars, were also inaccessible, according to CNN.
Iran’s Ministry of Communications blamed the outage on a need to protect against enemy threats. They accused Israel of using its communication networks for military purposes.
The Nobitex cryptocurrency exchange was also forced to halt operations temporarily due to a security breach. The Predatory Sparrow hacking group, suspected to have links to the Israeli government, claimed responsibility for the attack. They had previously hacked Sepah Bank, an Iranian bank.
Two Iranian banks, Sepah Bank and Pasargad, were targeted by the hackers. Iran believes the Predatory Sparrow group is linked to the Israeli government.
Background
The recent escalation between Iran and Israel has led to a series of retaliatory attacks. The situation remains tense, with both countries accusing each other of aggression.
The source of this information is BBC.