Iranian firewall set for US cyberattack – payback for Tehran’s strikes on Gulf oil

The successful testing of a firewall for protecting Iran’s “industrial facilities” against cyberattack was suddenly revealed by Iran’s Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi on Thursday, May 16. This post on the minister’s Instagram page indicated that his government is bracing for an American cyberattack in response for Tehran’s strikes against Gulf oil infrastructure this week.

Jahromi cited “Iran’s university scientists” as having developed a firewall for industrial automation systems to “neutralize industrial sabotage such as that caused by Stuxnet in power networks, and it has been successfully tested,” he said.

DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources read these comments in the context of proliferating reports that cyberattack on Iranian facilities is one of the optional responses under consideration at White House and Pentagon consultations, for Iran’s sabotage of oil tankers in UAE waters and Saudi pumping stations. The Iranian minister’s comments reflected Tehran’s belief that this option is real.

Jahromi’s words also tie in with the belligerent comment by the new IRGC commander Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami on Wednesday: “We are on the cusp of a full-scale confrontation with the enemy,” the Fars news agency reported. “This moment in history, because the enemy has stepped into the field of confrontation with us with all the possible capacity, is the most decisive moment of the Islamic revolution.”

The general did not elaborate on his meaning – or even name the enemy, but the phrase “all possibly capacity” is now seen as referring to a possible American cyberattack. The coming issue of DEBKA Weekly (for subscribers) out on Friday, May 17, offers exclusive details on the escalating contest between the US and Iran, their respective tactics, and the calculations guiding their actions. To sign on, click here.

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63 thoughts on “Iranian firewall set for US cyberattack – payback for Tehran’s strikes on Gulf oil

  • May 16, 2019 @ 17:09 at 17:09
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    I had a feeling they would try some kind of cyber attack first. Slow playing it for now.

    • May 16, 2019 @ 17:41 at 17:41
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      Yes! The odds of an Iranian firewall stopping Israeli hackers is Zero. The network is the new perimeter. Firewalls stop mundane threats fir which threat intell exist… not these hackers. Not a chance. 😉

      • May 17, 2019 @ 1:41 at 1:41
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        Israelis developed such capabilities for Iran , what else is new –mistake , it is new to the Israeli rulers and their Americans crazies.

        • May 17, 2019 @ 1:49 at 1:49
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          Yea that back door worked great against the Stuxnet virus that took down imanutjob’s computers.

    • May 16, 2019 @ 22:48 at 22:48
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      That file cabinet was full of votes for Netanyahu.

      • May 16, 2019 @ 23:24 at 23:24
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        Stupid captcha, stupid comment: Defense ≠ Offense

        The whole world knows the terrorists. Just ask Saddam. And that scumbag killed Persians with Uncle Sam’s weapons and WMD for a decade.

        • May 17, 2019 @ 4:17 at 4:17
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          Hard to ask someone who’s DEAD because of the mighty US Army!

          • May 17, 2019 @ 6:33 at 6:33
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            He’s one of millions this millennium for whom that’s the case.

    • May 17, 2019 @ 19:14 at 19:14
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      Lol 10 years after the original Stunex!! israel probably has V10

  • May 16, 2019 @ 17:38 at 17:38
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    It is hard to believe, that the regime of donkey-brained ayatollahs,
    (even if helped by that of the super-fat N.K piglet Kim) could electronically outsmart I
    the combined resources of the U.S. and Israeli military computer science.

    • May 16, 2019 @ 17:46 at 17:46
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      They are getting help in the past from china and russia, so who knows. Also, its easy to be dismissive or iran’s abilities, but you know…there might be some really smart guys in there who have been told to make it happen or you’ve had your last goat.

      • May 16, 2019 @ 17:57 at 17:57
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        Keyboard worrier, you may be right about Russian or Chinese help, but my money is on US and Israeli cyber smarts coming out ahead!

        • May 16, 2019 @ 22:12 at 22:12
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          israil nükleer silahı olmasına rağmen abd nao rusya avrupa ülkelerinin tamamı israilin yanında olmasına rağmen ne kadarda irandan korkuyor yoksa gerçekte irandan korkuyormu israil irandan yoksa iranı büyük tehlike olarak dünya ülkelerine gösterip büyük ortadoğu yahudi projesi için yanında ve arkasında olan abd nato ülkelerini kışkırtıp savaş çıkarmayamı çalışıyor israil irana karşı israil kendisi suriyede yemende bir sürü terör örgütüne destek veriyor örnek el kaide el nusra gibi terörö örgütlerine israil silah ve para desteği veriyor israil yeryüzünden tıpkı semud ad firavun yahudi kavmi gibi silinemedimi asla bölgede ve dünyada hiçbir ülkeye rahat yoktur çünkü bu siyonist ve abd deki evamjelist kesim sürekli müslüman ülkelere karşı savaşa koymaya çalışıyor abdyi natoyu rusyayı yanlış bilgilendirerek bu ülkeleri kandırarak israil dünya çapında elinde gelse tüm ülkelere savaş açmaya çalışıyor lanet olsun israil yahudi siyonist ve evanjelist yahudi kavmine sonunuz yakındır ey israil

          • May 16, 2019 @ 22:31 at 22:31
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            ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
            Ein Volk, ein Islamische Republik, ein Oberster Führer Ali Chamene’i

            ☪️ ☪️ ☪️ ☪️ ☪️ ☪️ Tausendjähriges Islamische Reich ☪️ ☪️ ☪️ ☪️ ☪️ ☪️
            ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

        • May 17, 2019 @ 3:25 at 3:25
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          so you must be the only warrior on the field..loser….put one thru your ear on any battlefield.

          • May 17, 2019 @ 15:56 at 15:56
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            US Navy Seals found OBL hiding like a rat in PakiSTAIN and brought him to Justice.

    • May 16, 2019 @ 18:40 at 18:40
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      abd rusya israil avrupa ülkelerinin tamamı dünyanın en kalleş işgalci darbeci soykırımcı katliamcı siyonist ve evanjelist rejimlerdir yıkılsın bu ülkeler allahın izniyle

      • May 16, 2019 @ 22:46 at 22:46
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        ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
        One Iranian people, one Shia realm, one Ayatollah Fuhrer Ali Khamenei

        ☪️ ☪️ ☪️ ☪️ ☪️ ☪️ 1000 years Twelver Shia Reich ☪️ ☪️ ☪️ ☪️ ☪️ ☪️
        ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

  • May 16, 2019 @ 18:24 at 18:24
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    debka publishing either nonsense or fake news

    a firewall does not attack any thing, firewall protects the network behind

    • May 19, 2019 @ 18:41 at 18:41
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      Firewall or perimeter protects against primarily known threats and known adverse behaviors. Like stuxnet, you get one piece of malware code inside an endpoint, whether by memory stick (Stuxnet) or via email, and if threat intell doesn’t detect it the network is broken. The attacker can pivot, set up c&c, and run thru the network with ease. The Israelis have a huge collection of hidden compromise attack vectors and discovered vulnerabilities that they can use. Iran has zero chance of stopping them … they are already in those networks already @ 100% probability.

  • May 16, 2019 @ 18:53 at 18:53
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    What about Sentinel drone hacked (most likely with help of Chinese or Russians ) and landing in Iran. Cardinal sin is — underestimate of the enemy.

    • May 16, 2019 @ 19:07 at 19:07
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      Underestimating a smart & suicidal enemy….

      This fact bringing on Niroshima/Nagasaki is in play.

      Iranian partisans under the radar in North America will have effect. Anything solid state is vulnerable. Kinetic methods as seen in the San Jose Substation event are in the program. Main event will be several detonations in Troposphere, freezing food distribution primary goal. Lack of rail lines into food production districts is an Achilles’ Heel.

  • May 16, 2019 @ 19:07 at 19:07
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    The Irak playbook is playing again. Try everything to provoke a war, followed by fireworks, proclaim Mission Accomplished and then get solidly defeated in every imaginable metrics. Stupid Americans, they never learn!

    • May 16, 2019 @ 20:58 at 20:58
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      Who died at the end of a noose? Saddam Hussein or any American President?

      Who was shot to pieces in a firefight? Uday and Qusay or any American President’s kids?

      Who was dragged out of a hole in the ground where he was hiding in fear from US Special Forces? Saddam or any American President?

      Who currently has troops in the other’s country? America or Iraq?

      Stupid America-haters, they never learn!

      • May 16, 2019 @ 22:51 at 22:51
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        Operation
        Iraqi
        Liberation

        What a great victory.

        #AbuGhraib

        • May 17, 2019 @ 1:24 at 1:24
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          George H W Bush defeated Iraq/Saddam.
          George W Bush defeated Iraq/Saddam, who found no further mercy and was then executed.
          Abu Ghraib was about nothing more than leftist/communist God-haters trying by whatever means to tarnish the Great Reputation of

          The United States of America:
          Blessed by God
          Made great by Judeo-Christian virtues
          Used by The Mighty God – Whose Name is Jesus Christ to steer the world

          • May 17, 2019 @ 3:37 at 3:37
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            Donald Rumsfeld gave Sadaam WMD, and photographs aren’t communist. Both are windows into a sick culture of perverted torturers.

            The valiant Iraqi resistance revealed the USA as a terror state like their antisemitic colony, ended US unipolarity, and broke Uncle Sam’s budget.

            Meanwhile, the occupation stole no oil. Their alCIAda/ISIS creation failed too. Now 8000 soldiers remain, surrounded by 25 million people who hate them.

            The country is more closely allied to Persia than it has been in centuries.

            Was that part of the plan?

      • May 17, 2019 @ 3:09 at 3:09
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        6000 Americans dead plus over 60,000 injured for life and nothing to show for it. The Chinese and Russians get all the business and oil contracts in Iraq and the government is solidly aligned with Tehran.

        Stupid uneducated American. their ignorance is boundless.

        • May 17, 2019 @ 4:19 at 4:19
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          Answer my previous questions then get back to me.

          • May 18, 2019 @ 1:20 at 1:20
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            Insignificant achievement to get one man and the US has vacated all their bases except a few on the Syrian border and that has to be done soon.

            5 trillion $ later added to the US deficit, the destabilization of the entire region leading to the creation of ISIS, over 1 million dead and millions displaced. Eventually these angry people will end up in the US for their payback. And it will be well deserved.

            In other words gained next to nothing and solidly defeated losing in all possible metrics.

            Yankee, if you still think you won, you’re completely delusional and need medication to return to reality.

  • May 16, 2019 @ 20:01 at 20:01
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    I don’t think the response to a physical attack is going to be unliking Iran on Facebook.

  • May 16, 2019 @ 20:51 at 20:51
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    Remember when Mossad waltzed into Persia and stole all their nuclear secrets? ? LOL!!! ? ? The Persians thought they were safe then too!

    • May 16, 2019 @ 22:54 at 22:54
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      That ‘stolen’ file cabinet on the news was full of votes for Netanyahu, taken from his basement.

      • May 17, 2019 @ 1:26 at 1:26
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        Liar

      • May 17, 2019 @ 16:03 at 16:03
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        Plus the Persians who live under the cruel tyranny of the fascist ayatoolas are sick and tired of the Iranian regime and are an inner opponent to the rule of the ayatoolas.

        Fascist Iran has OUTSIDE (US, Israel, Saudi Arabia) and INSIDE (Kurds) armies to overthrow the regime.

        Fascist Iran will soon FALL.

        • May 18, 2019 @ 3:39 at 3:39
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          The Hitlerite Swine knows the Persian mind:

          “WE WANT SHAH GUIDO!” they exclaim.

          “WE LOVE NuttyYahoo!” they cheer.

          “Horray for the SAVAK… torture me!”

        • May 18, 2019 @ 3:42 at 3:42
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          To his credit, the Hitlerite Swine has finally read his recent history, learning of his century-old alliance between the pedophiliac stewards of Mecca and his beloved benefactor.

  • May 16, 2019 @ 21:02 at 21:02
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    Jacobites Will Take Their Rightful Place

    • May 16, 2019 @ 21:52 at 21:52
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      I guess I will have to add something to my name so it’s not confused with another Jacob. Lol

  • May 16, 2019 @ 21:53 at 21:53
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    No physical or electronic war between US and Iran will happen. The carrier groups in the ME are making sure nothing happens. The ayatollahs have already responded (saved their faces) to new oil sales restrictions by their proxies wrecking havoc in the Emirates.

    • May 17, 2019 @ 2:20 at 2:20
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      And now the corrupt Mullah’s will go hungry when Iran goes broke. Then they can swim in their stinking oil.

  • May 16, 2019 @ 23:52 at 23:52
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    ‘All possible’ sounds like nuclear threat to me, not tinkering with keyboards.

  • May 17, 2019 @ 2:24 at 2:24
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    Most of the Iranian people live in a country that is cut off from 21st century civilization by their Islamic slavemasters…and so an Internet attack will have very little effect on the people of Iran but more impact on their industries. I do not think that Iran is as reliant on the cyber world and not as wired as much as we are in the Western world. So I do not place much importance on this report except to say that we in the West must protect ourselves much better in the Internet space. We can’t even protect our own servers from having vital industrial secrets stolen by China and Russia. We can’t even protect our elections from a few Russian trolls and hackers colluding with the Dems to unseat a candidate and then a sitting president.

  • May 17, 2019 @ 2:37 at 2:37
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    We might lose a ship. But if we do, they will lose their despotic regime, and their insane “Twelver” apocalyptic religious cult – which will be a good thing for the Iranian people.

    • May 17, 2019 @ 2:57 at 2:57
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      Oh my… if the squatter navy loses one ship, that’s half the fleet!

      Stick to using drone warfare on kites, joker. The Persians have a real navy.

      • May 17, 2019 @ 4:21 at 4:21
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        Not “half the navy”.
        Let’s talk about Persia’s navy of canoes and rafts, lol! ?

        • May 17, 2019 @ 6:40 at 6:40
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          Persians don’t use their navy to murder fishermen!

          Crazy that one little canoe with one little missile gets on the cover of the NY Times, provokes an exodus of Uncle Sam’s imperialist corps(e) in Iraq, and has Debka endlessly pimping a nuclear holocaust (with bloodlust).

          • May 17, 2019 @ 12:06 at 12:06
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            israil köpek gibi korkak ülkedir büyük abilerinin abd ve nato ülkelerinin arkasına gizlenip savaş çıkartmaya çalışan siyonist rejimdir netanyahu katildir hukuk adalet insan hakları kavramı israil terörist devletine yüz milyarlarca yıl uzak kavramlardır çünkü insanlıktan nasibini almamış yahudi kavmidir olmayasıca yahudi kavmi soyları kuruyasıcalar geberesi köpek siyonist yahudiler dünya sizin yüzünüzden katliamdan savaştan soykırımdan hep israil yüzünden oluyor alçak siyonist yahudi rejimi sizi insanlığın yüz karası siz yüzü kara sapkınlarsız ey israil siyonist rejimi yahudileri halkı allah hakkıyla hüküm edendir hiç merak etmeyin siz siyonistler

      • May 17, 2019 @ 4:49 at 4:49
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        For the love of God you are an idiot.. You really should Google who has a strong navy. (Google is your friend lol) It’s not even close. I almost feel sorry for your tiny Iranian canoes and untrained IRGC troops. SEAL’s always need a good pinata to score candy from. Call me arrogant if it makes you feel better, but how can you honestly believe Iran could be successful in this situation? Actually, I don’t even know why the USA is even there, Israel could smash Iran all by themselves. BTW, you might want to consider changing your name to something more appropriate like “stronger”, because your’s is pretty weak..

      • May 17, 2019 @ 5:20 at 5:20
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        Tear Down the cyber apartheid wall

        • May 17, 2019 @ 16:07 at 16:07
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          Teat Down the Ayatoolas wall.

          Free Persia from Satans Ayatoolas!

          • May 18, 2019 @ 4:13 at 4:13
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            “Long Live Shah Guido!” says the Swine. “Long live the SAVAK.”

        • May 18, 2019 @ 3:40 at 3:40
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          To the real Roger Waters: Tear down your own walls and let some terrorists into your palatial homes – see how you like being targeted and attacked, old man.

  • May 17, 2019 @ 7:18 at 7:18
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    unplug your device, no firewall required. might as well it will not work anyway

  • May 17, 2019 @ 7:26 at 7:26
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    Debka is cool

  • May 17, 2019 @ 7:31 at 7:31
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    At least Cisco network equipment is backdoored, agencies can hack it. Other off the shelf equipment can be hacked too. But cisco backdoors are so loudly open that it is easier for agencies then to hunt down a security flaw in a huawei or russuan router build for russian state agencies only

  • May 17, 2019 @ 7:37 at 7:37
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    You pc contains a surveillance processor called the ME, and it works out of band.
    So this can be exploited too if an agency really wants it, they can load custom modules onto it and extract crypto keys if they find a way to the ME from remote as it can access the ME of your PC. Your ISP can look behind the NAT of your ISP provided router so they can talk to the ME if they want to.
    Same with cisco switches owned by your friendly agency.

  • May 17, 2019 @ 7:45 at 7:45
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    They censor posts about frontdoored frisco routers.
    So I cant bring the links.
    Just search the web for CVE 2018-0141

  • May 17, 2019 @ 20:17 at 20:17
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    Iran’s Shiia Regime is Fighting for its Right to Self-Existence and has been since 632 AD. There Time is near an end.

  • May 18, 2019 @ 2:02 at 2:02
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    iran, did you have the NSA test it yet. haha and how about Israel’s finest hackers, hahahaha

  • May 18, 2019 @ 5:17 at 5:17
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    Three Iranian Shiia Revolutionary Guards find themselves locked up in Prison, and they ask each other what they’re in for and why? The First Iranian says: “I was always 10 Minutes Late for Guard Duty, so I was Accused of Sabotage”. The Second Iranian says: “I was always 10 Minutes Early for Guard Duty, so I was Accused of Espionage”. The Third Iranian says: “I always got to my Guard Duty on Time, so I was Accused of having an American Watch”

    These same Three Iranian Revolutionary Guards wanted to know why they are as the “IRG”, Operate in Groups of Three?” It is because “One can Read, One can write and One to Keep an Eye on the Two Intellectuals Praying for America to Invade”

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