TEHRAN -- A cyberattack in Iran interrupted petrol distribution at the country’s service stations on Tuesday, the Islamic Republic’s top security body said.
The Supreme National Security Council confirmed that there has been a cyberattack against the petrol distribution computer system.
It had earlier reported that the interruption was due to “disruptions to the computer system”.
“Details of the attack and its source are under investigation,” it added, without giving further details.
The oil ministry said only sales with smart cards used for cheaper rationed gasoline were disrupted and clients could still buy fuel at higher rates, the ministry’s news agency SHANA reported.
The Fars news agency linked the breakdown to the upcoming second anniversary of November protests sparked by a hike in petrol prices.
National television said the system disruption had blocked petrol pumps across the country. Networks broadcast images of long lines at shut services stations.
An urgent meeting was being held at Iran’s national society for the distribution of petrol products in order to resolve the problem, the body’s spokesman Fatemeh Kahi said.
National TV said about one-tenth of gas stations were open and more were reopening as teams of technicians rushed to activate manual settings after online functions were paralyzed by hackers.
Interior Minister Ahmed Vahidi on Tuesday assured people that there are no plans to raise petrol prices, calling on them “not to worry”.
Cheap gasoline is practically considered a birthright in Iran, home to the world’s fourth-largest crude oil reserves.
Subsidies allow Iranian motorists to buy regular gasoline at 15,000 rials per liter. That’s 5 cents a liter, or about 20 cents a gallon. After a monthly 60-liter quota, it costs 30,000 rials a liter. That’s 10 cents a liter or 41 cents a gallon. Regular gasoline costs 89 cents a liter or $3.38 a gallon on average in the U.S., according to AAA.
In the past, Iran has been targeted by a series of cyberattacks such as one in July when the website of the transport ministry was taken down by a “cyber disruption”.
Iran says it is on high alert for online assaults, which it has blamed in the past on the United States and the occupying regime of Israel.
The computer virus Stuxnet, which is widely believed to have been developed by the United States and the Zionist regime, was discovered in 2010 after it was used to attack a uranium enrichment facility in Iran. It was the first publicly known example of a virus being used to attack industrial machinery.