How state-backed hackers skirted Iran’s internet shutdown

When the Iranian regime abruptly shut down the internet in January during a brutal crackdown on protesters, some state-sponsored hackers managed to stay online.

The weeks-long internet blackout isolated over 90 million Iranians from the world. But some cyber-espionage groups apparently were able to keep working on the heavily monitored domestic intranet and “whitelisted” IP addresses linked to the regime that gave them continued access to the world wide web.

MuddyWater, a hacking group allegedly linked to Iran’s Intelligence Ministry, continued to launch cyberattacks on Israeli companies during the shutdown, according to Rafael Franco, the former deputy director general of the Israel National Cyber Directorate.

Read more at Bloomberg