Iran International:

An Iranian entity paid hackers $3 million in ransom to dissuade them from releasing the data of over 20 hacked banks, Politico reported, confirming Iran International’s earlier report about the “biggest-ever” cyberattack on Iran’s banking system.

Iran International reported on August 14 that the major cyberattack targeted several Iranian banks, leading to the theft of a huge amount of data. Initial assessments indicated at the time this could be one of the largest cyberattacks ever against Iranian state infrastructure, even though Iranian officials kept mum about the revelation.

In its report on Wednesday, Politico wrote that the cyberattack targeted 20 of the 29 active credit institutions in Iran, threatening the stability of the Islamic Republic's banking system. The report said it appears to be the “worst cyberattack” against the country.

Citing unnamed sources, Politico noted that the group “IRLeaks” which has a history of hacking Iranian companies, is likely behind the cyberattack.

“IRleaks entered the banks’ servers via a company called Tosan, which provides data and other digital services to Iran’s financial sector,” the officials told Politico. “Using Tosan as a Trojan horse, the hackers appear to have siphoned data from both private banks and Iran’s central bank... The regime ultimately forced Tosan to pay the IRLeaks ransom.”

The report said the affected banks included “the Bank of Industry and Mines, Mehr Interest-Free Bank, Post Bank of Iran, Iran Zamin Bank, Sarmayeh Bank, Iran-Venezuela Bi-National Bank, Bank Day, Bank-e Shahr, Eghtesad Novin Bank, and Saman, which also has branches in Italy and Germany.”

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