An Iranian General alleged that Israel and US might have planned a cyberattack that caused disruption of fuel in service stations in Iran. The attack which happened on Tuesday is similar to two recent incidents where, as per the general, the attackers might be Iran's rivals: USA and Israel. Two incidents were analyzed, the Shahid Rajaei port incident and the railway accident, and found that these two incidents were similar. Earlier this year, as per Iran's transportation ministry, a cyberattack disrupted its website and computer systems, reports Fars news agency.
"In a country where petrol flows freely at what are some of the lowest prices in the world, motorists need digital cards issued by the authorities.
The cards entitle holders to a monthly amount of petrol at a subsidized rate and, once the quota has been used up, to buy more expensive at the market rate," reports The Security Week.
In 2020, Washington Post reported an incident where Israel orchestrated an attack on Iranian port Shahid Rajaei (in Hormuz Strait), a strategic path to global oil shipments.
The recent cyber disruption resulted in traffic jams in major pockets in Tehran, having long lines at petrol pumps disrupting traffic flow. Following the incident, the oil ministry shut down the service stations in order for easy manual distribution of petrol, said the authorities. On Wednesday, President Ebrahim Raisi alleged that the actors were trying to sway the people of Iran against Islamic Republic leadership. As per the reports, an estimated 3200 out of 4300 of the country's service stations have been re-linked with the central distribution system, said the National Oil Products Distribution Company.
Besides this, there are other stations who also give fuel to motorists, but not at subsidized rates, which makes it twice in the rates, around 5-6 US cents/litre. The Security Week reports, "Since 2010, when Iran's nuclear program was hit by the Stuxnet computer virus, Iran and its arch-foes Israel and the United States have regularly accused each other of cyberattacks. The conservative Fars news agency on Tuesday linked the breakdown to opponents ahead of the second anniversary of deadly protests sparked by a hike in petrol prices."
