Matthew Karnitschnig reports:
A massive cyberattack that hit Iran last month threatened the stability of its banking system and forced the country’s regime to agree to a ransom deal of millions of dollars, people familiar with the case say.
An Iranian firm paid at least $3 million in ransom last month to stop an anonymous group of hackers from releasing individual account data from as many as 20 domestic banks in what appears to be the worst cyberattack the country has seen, according to industry analysts and western officials briefed on the matter.
A group known as IRLeaks, which has a history of hacking Iranian companies, was likely behind the breach, the officials said.
[…]
IRleaks entered the banks’ servers via a company called Tosan, which provides data and other digital services to Iran’s financial sector, the officials said. Using Tosan as a Trojan horse, the hackers appear to have siphoned data from both private banks and Iran’s central bank. Of Iran’s 29 active credit institutions, as many as 20 were hit, said the officials, who requested anonymity in order to reveal sensitive information.
Read more at Politco.eu.