Israeli hacktivist group brags it took down Iran's internet

Israel-based hacktivists are taking credit for an ongoing internet outage in Iran.

Operating under the name WeRedEvils, the group has been around since at least October 2023, likely as a direct consequence of Hamas's attack on Israel, which led to the current Gaza war.

"In the coming minutes we will attack systems and internet providers in Iran," WeRedEvils said on Telegram yesterday. "A hard blow is on the way."

By the group's own account, the attack was a success, claiming it had been able to infiltrate Iran's computer systems, steal data, and cause an internet outage. The group claimed they'd passed the stolen info to the Israeli government.

As proof, WeRedEvils pointed out that the website for the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology – ict.gov.ir – is currently down, as are most other websites for Iran's ministries, which spat out "took too long to respond" errors. Some sites also gave 403 errors, which might just indicate this vulture wasn't allowed to visit.

The Register could only find two government ministry pages that were accessible in the US – the one for the country's Culture Ministry, and the one for its Foreign Affairs Ministry.

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"We know there are some Iranians here who support the Revolutionary Guards, and we would like to contact them personally," WeRedEvils, whose members characterize themselves as "warriors without uniform" said on Telegram per Google Translate. "Stop raising red flags and start raising a white flag. The folly will take you all to the dustbin of history. Iran will burn – Israel will win."

It's not clear how much damage WeRedEvils actually did, or if it's even entirely responsible for the current outage, considering how opaque Iran is when it comes to these sorts of things.

WeRedEvils claimed it attacked Iran's electricity grid and disabled it for two hours back in October last year, perhaps the group's first attack. The group has also apparently become so notorious even in Israel itself that the Israeli Security Agency or Shin Bet has arrested "several members" for espionage as of June. ®