In solidarity with the nationwide protests, a hacker group is putting secret information on Iranian nuclear activities online. The activists also made the passports of the Russian specialists in the Bushehr nuclear plant public. Tehran downplays the incident.
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization says a subsidiary’s email server has been hacked from a foreign country. In addition, information was published online, state media reported. An Iranian hacking group called Black Reward tweeted that they were behind the cyber attack. You have published the captured information about Iranian nuclear activities. The group said the action was an act of support for protests in the Islamic Republic that began following the death of Iranian Mahsa Amini in custody last month.
According to Black Reward, the published information includes, among other things, management and operational plans of various parts of the Bushehr nuclear facility, passports and visas of the Iranian and Russian specialists working there, as well as contracts and agreements on nuclear development plans with domestic and foreign partners.
Iran downplayed the importance of the information released. According to state media, it was “technical news” as well as routine matters. Black Reward, in a statement released Oct. 21, had threatened to release hacked information within 24 hours if authorities did not release political prisoners and people arrested during the riots.
The international nuclear deal that limits Iran’s nuclear program and eases sanctions against the country is on the brink. The European Union currently expects no progress in talks with Iran on reviving the agreement. It was negotiated in 2015 by the USA, China, Russia, Germany, France, Great Britain and Iran. In 2018, however, then US President Donald Trump canceled the agreement and reintroduced US sanctions against Iran. Iran then began violating its obligations under the deal, making it more difficult to revive the deal. The government in Tehran has always denied striving for nuclear weapons and has declared that it only wants to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
