Attacks of an anonymous group of hackers on Iranian government websites at the Foreign Ministry, the Atomic Energy Organization, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Organization have caused many of these websites to become inaccessible by their visitors for more than a day. “Members of this group say that this is a long-term operation and that it will last until Iran is freed,” a source close to this anonymous group told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

The semi-offical Fars News Agency, close to the Revolutionary Guards, was also inaccessible for an hour yesterday and for five hours today, but the group has not taken responsibility.

According to the said source, the Foreign Ministry’s website stopped operation for more than a day. There are several Iranians inside the anonymous group who help identify which sites to attack, according to the source.

“If the number and timing of the attacks are coordinated and persistent, in just a few hours the targeted websites stop working, and if the attacks are widespread, they can stop the website completely,” the source told the Campaign. The attack on Iran’s government websites occurs as over the recent days, Iran’s opposition websites have also been attacked by pro-government groups, or as some believe, the Iranian government itself.

Related reading:

Deutsche Welle’s report about the International Anonymous Hackers (in Persian)
Aljazeera article on international hacker groups

The group, called “Operation Iran” (#OpIran), made its attacks  just as immediately after the peaceful public demonstrations of 14 February, the website had begun strong attacks on opposition groups and the protesters, defending execution of opposition leaders. Even the Supreme Leader’s website and the Iranian President’s website faced disrupted service for several hours after they were attacked by the group.

The official Iranian Parliament website also faced service disruption through DDoS attacks after demands for the execution of opposition leaders were posted on the website. The said source told the Campaign that this group has also implemented similar operations in Egypt and Tunisia.

The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Broadcasting Organization and other state controlled news agencies such as Fars News had posted numerous articles over the past several days, condemning the street protesters and stating that they were related to foreign states.