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On October 26th, experts successfully contained the disruption in gas stations across Iran, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council of Cyberspace said.
Why did this official make the statement? Because allegedly, a “widespread” cyberattack from abroad allegedly targeted gas stations across the Islamic Republic.
Abolhassan Firouzabadi made the statement on TV, hours after a nationwide disruption at gas stations halted subsidized fuel access for millions of Iranian drivers.
“It is possible that the assault, like the cyberattack that hit the systems of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways, was carried out from abroad,” he added, noting that the results of a probe into the incident will be announced in the next 7 or 10 days.
Firouzabadi also said that the cyberattack did not cause any hardware damage and only disrupted the service to citizens.
Iranian experts, he explained, were able to find a solution to the problem in a short period of time.
“Although this cyberattack has been contained now, it has caused a lot of difficulties. We hope that all gas stations will return to normal status tomorrow,” he added.
Local news agencies reported on October 26th that long queues that had been formed in front of gas stations in large Iranian cities had cleared up after Oil Ministry authorities dispatched teams to the forecourts to enable offline fuel delivery.
Iran’s National Virtual Space Center also issued a statement confirming that a cyberattack had targeted the online fuel delivery system in the country.
“Related departments are working to fix the problem and fuel delivery services will return to normal within the next few hours,” said the statement.
The National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company had earlier avoided referring to the disruption in gas stations as a result of a cyberattack.
Iran has been using an online system to ration subsidized fuel since November 2019 when the government ordered a series of price hikes for gasoline and diesel.
Under the system, motorists are entitled to 60 liters of gasoline per month at a price of 15,000 rials ($0.54).
The system is aimed at optimizing the use of fuel in Iran and preventing its smuggling into neighboring countries where prices are much higher.
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