Cyberattack forces Iran steel company to halt production

One of Iran‘s major steel companies said Monday it was forced to halt production after being hit by a cyberattack, apparently marking one of the biggest such assaults on the country’s strategic industrial sector in recent memory.

The Iranian government did not acknowledge the disruption or blame any specific group for the assault on the state-owned Khuzestan Steel Co., which constitutes just the latest example of an attack crippling the country’s services in recent months amid heightened tensions in the region.

A little-known hacking group claimed responsibility for the attack on social media, saying it targeted Iran’s three biggest steel companies because of their links to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and volunteer Basij militia.

The group shared what it claimed to be surveillance footage from the Khuzestan Steel Co. factory floor that showed a massive fire erupt on a steel billet production line after the purported disruption.

“These companies are subject to international sanctions and continue their operations despite the restrictions,” the group said. No other targeted company acknowledged a cyberattack.

Khuzestan Steel Co. said the plant had to stop work until further notice “due to technical problems” following “cyberattacks.” The company’s website was down on Monday.

However, CEO Amin Ebrahimi, claimed that Khuzestan Steel managed to thwart the cyberattack and prevent damage to production that would impact supply chains and customers. He said nothing of the explosion shown in the hacker group’s footage.

“Fortunately with time and awareness, the attack was unsuccessful,” the semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Ebrahimi as saying, adding that he expected the company’s website to be restored and everything to return to “normal” by the end of Monday.

A local news channel, Jamaran, meanwhile reported that the attack failed because the factory happened to be non-operational at the time due to an electricity outage.

Cyberattacks have become increasingly common in Iran in recent years. The country, long sanctioned by the West, has been slow to update its networks to counter the rising use of ransomware by criminals, as well as intrusions by state actors.