LONDON: Iran’s state media outlet Fars was hit by a cyberattack, the agency reported on Saturday.
The incident seems to be part of a larger operation aimed at discrediting the outlet, which is managed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and exposing sensitive government information.
Fars said that its website had been disrupted late on Friday by a “complex hacking and cyberattack operation.”
“Removing possible bugs may cause problems for some agency services for a few days,” it said in a statement posted on its Telegram channel.
“Cyberattacks against Fars news agency are carried out almost daily from different countries, including the occupied territories (Israel),” it added.
Fars has been heavily criticized for what critics say is its distorted reporting of recent protests that have swept Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini in mid-September.
The 22-year-old was arrested for an alleged breach of the country’s dress code for women and died while in the custody of the country’s morality police.
Hackers appear to have targeted the Twitter account of one of Fars’ managers and published a video on his profile.
The hacker group Black Reward on Friday claimed to have breached the agency’s database, and said it had obtained confidential bulletins and directives sent by the news agency to the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran has been targeted by several anonymous hacker groups in recent years.
In October, Black Reward published documents from Iran’s nuclear program after the government ignored hackers’ demands to release all political prisoners and protesters arrested during recent demonstrations.
In past weeks, the group has also hacked the emails of state-affiliated press and TV managers and employees, obtaining personal information.
