iran

It is prohibited for any U.S. person, company, organization, or agency to have any sort of business dealing that involves selling goods or services to Iran, because of U.S. government sanctions.

However, today it was reported by Reuters that Iran's second-largest mobile operator, MTN Irancell, seems to have gotten its hands on mobile computer equipment from several U.S. companies, including Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, and Cisco Systems.

Though it's still unclear just how MTN Irancell got the equipment, Reuters has held several interviews and uncovered dozens of documents it says confirm that MTN Irancell wanted this … Read more

The United Nations has seized on the appearance of the Flame worm, which targeted computers in the Middle East, to argue that it should have more authority to deal with cybersecurity threats on the Internet.

Last week, the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union circulated a statement about Flame saying the malware "reinforces the need for a coordinated response" that could come from "building a global coalition." It took credit for Flame's discovery, saying Kaspersky Lab identified it "following a technical analysis requested by the ITU." (See CNET's FAQ.)

ITU spokesman Paul Conneally … Read more

The Flame worm that has targeted computers in the Middle East is being called "the most sophisticated cyberweapon yet unleashed" by Kaspersky Lab researchers who discovered it. Lurking on computers for at least five years, the malware has the ability to steal data, eavesdrop on conversations, and take screen captures of instant message exchanges, making it dangerous to any victim. But a possible link to malware found on computers in Iran's oil sector has experts saying it's got to be the work of a nation-state.

CNET talked with Roel Schouwenberg, senior researcher at Kaspersky, the company … Read more

President Barack Obama has been fighting a clandestine cyberwar against foreign governments and al-Qaeda, and his efforts in that arena have far exceeded those of his predecessors, according to a new report.

The New York Times today published a wide-ranging report, adapted from an upcoming book, "Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power," by Times reporter David Sanger, on the Obama administration's use of cyberwarfare to take on Iran and potentially other countries or entities it views as a threat. Chief among the administration's targets was Iran's nuclear plants, … Read more

Web users in Iran and Syria attempting to use a proxy tool to freely surf the Internet are reportedly being tracked by a new Trojan.

The proxy software known as Simurgh is used by many Iranian and Syrian citizens to make it seem as if their secure Internet connections are coming from a different country. Such proxy programs are common ways to mask a user's PC and Internet information in order to circumvent local censorship restrictions.

But a back-doored verson of Simurgh discovered by researchers at the University of Toronto is carrying a payload of malware -- one designed … Read more

The Flame virus recently found in Iran could be used to infect other countries, according to the International Telecommunications Union.

As the United Nations agency charged with helping members protect their data networks, the ITU plans to issue a warning about the danger of Flame.

"This is the most serious (cyber) warning we have ever put out," Marco Obiso, cyber security coordinator for the ITU, told Reuters. The warning will paint the virus as a "dangerous espionage tool that could potentially be used to attack critical infrastructure," Reuters added.

Flame was recently identified as a culprit … Read more

The Iranian government said it will sue Google after the Internet company removed the name of the Persian Gulf from its mapping service.

The body of water between Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar was left nameless after the search giant removed the tag from Google Maps.

It is not clear why Google decided to remove the name, widely referred to as the Persian Gulf, or if it was caused by a bug in the system. A Google spokesperson declined to comment.

It does not explain why Google Earth keeps the name tag in place.

Iran'… Read more

Iran is cracking down on the use of foreign e-mail addresses.

The country's telecommunications ministry is now barring local banks, insurance companies, and phone operators from communicating with their clients using foreign e-mail providers, according to the AFP news service.

Based on information from Iranian news service Asr Ertebatat, the new order requires such industries to use addresses ending in the Iranian domain .ir, effectively preventing them from using such foreign providers as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, or MSN.

Customers of such companies are also included in the ban, requiring them to use local e-mail addresses in order to do … Read more

An Iranian double agent working for Israel used a standard thumb drive carrying a deadly payload to infect Iran's Natanz nuclear facility with the highly destructive Stuxnet computer worm, according to a story by ISSSource.

Stuxnet quickly propagated throughout Natanz -- knocking that facility offline and at least temporarily crippling Iran's nuclear program -- once a user did nothing more than click on a Windows icon. The worm was discovered nearly two years ago.

ISSSource's report yesterday was based on sources inside the U.S. intelligence community.