Hands full at home, Iran is seen slowing cyber attacks on UK

ROME — Cyber attacks on the U.K. noticeably dropped off during the recent protests in Iran, a senior British defense executive has reported.

Clive Higgins, the CEO of Leonardo UK, said that online bot activity promoting the independence of Scotland from the UK reduced as Iranian authorities violently suppressed civil protest this month.

The implication is that Iran has been pushing the cause of Scottish independence through malign cyber activity in a bid to weaken the UK, but slowed its activity as violent protests raged in Iran.

“What has been very interesting over the recent period, given the social unrest in Iran, is the drop off in social media activity and chat bot activity focused on Scotland, elections and independence,” Higgins told Defense News.

On Sunday, Scotland’s first minister John Swinney said he would call for a referendum on Scottish independence if his SNP party wins a majority in Scottish parliamentary elections in May. At a referendum on independence held in 2014, 55% of Scots voted to stay in the U.K.

A report produced by the British parliament’s intelligence and security committee last July said the U.K. was a priority target for Iranian cyber attacks, ranking just behind the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

“Iran has a high appetite for risk when conducting offensive activity and its intelligence services are ferociously well-resourced,” said committee chairman Kevan Jones at the time. He added, “It supplements this with its use of proxy groups – including criminal networks, militant and terrorist organizations, and private cyber actors – to provide it with a deniable means of attacking its adversaries with minimal risk of retaliation.”

Leonardo has been raising its profile as a cyber security provider, and Higgins said, “We are very clearly aware of the increasing threat from a cyber perspective and our capabilities monitor very regularly state actors who are mobilizing chat bots and social media accounts to disrupt the normal way of life we all enjoy.”

He added, “We are able to see very clearly the actions of state actors where we can identify IP addresses and other elements that articulate to us where things are being done, what kind of messages they are trying to deliver and how they are trying to disrupt U.K. society.”

He said, “There are three or four main state actors. We see a lot from North Korea, Iran, Russia and China. I don’t want to say that is state sponsored activity. It is where the activity derives from.”

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

罗马——一位英国高级国防官员报告称，在伊朗最近的抗议活动期间，针对英国的网络攻击明显减少。

Leonardo UK 的首席执行官 Clive Higgins 表示，随着伊朗当局本月暴力镇压民众抗议活动，宣传苏格兰脱离英国独立的在线机器人活动有所减少。

这意味着伊朗一直在通过恶意网络活动推动苏格兰独立，试图削弱英国，但随着伊朗爆发暴力抗议活动，伊朗放慢了其活动速度。

“鉴于伊朗的社会动荡，最近一段时间非常有趣的是，社交媒体和聊天机器人上有关苏格兰、选举和独立的活动有所下降，”希金斯告诉《防务新闻》。

周日，苏格兰首席大臣约翰·斯威尼表示，如果他的苏格兰民族党在5月份的苏格兰议会选举中赢得多数席位，他将呼吁举行苏格兰独立公投。在2014年举行的独立公投中，55%的苏格兰人投票支持留在英国。

英国议会情报与安全委员会去年 7 月发布的一份报告称，英国是伊朗网络攻击的优先目标，排名仅次于美国和沙特阿拉伯。

“伊朗在发动进攻性行动时极不顾风险，其情报机构资源极其丰富，”委员会主席凯文·琼斯当时表示。他补充道，“伊朗还利用代理人——包括犯罪网络、武装组织、恐怖组织和私人网络行为者——来增强自身实力，从而以最小的报复风险攻击对手，且行动本身不被认可。”

莱昂纳多一直在提升其作为网络安全提供商的知名度，希金斯表示：“我们非常清楚地意识到网络威胁日益增加，我们的能力会定期监控那些利用聊天机器人和社交媒体账户来扰乱我们所有人正常生活方式的国家行为体。”

他补充说：“我们能够非常清楚地看到国家行为者的行动，我们可以识别 IP 地址和其他要素，这些要素向我们表明了事情发生的地点、他们试图传递的信息类型以及他们试图如何扰乱英国社会。”

他说：“主要有三四个国家行为体。我们看到很多来自朝鲜、伊朗、俄罗斯和中国的活动。我不想说这是国家支持的活动，而是说这些活动的来源地。”

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。