Iranian cyberattacks on the rise, study says

Iran is picking up the pace of its cyberattacks, and some fear if economic sanctions are lifted, Tehran will simply pump its new revenue into cyber warfare.

Security firm Norse will release a study on Friday arguing it’s noticed a 115 percent increase in cyberattacks launched from Iran between January 2014 and last month. In the first half of March alone, Norse detected more than 900 attacks each day that could be tied back to Iran.

The New York Times previewed the study on Thursday.

{mosads}The increase could be an Iranian strategy to bolster its cyber capabilities as the country nears a deal with world powers that would limit its nuclear program, said researchers with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank that co-authored the report.

“Cyber gives them a usable weapon, in ways nuclear technology does not,” Frederick Kagan, who directs AEI’s Critical Threats Project, told the Times. “And it has a degree of plausible deniability that is attractive to many countries.”

Negotiators have agreed upon the framework for a deal that would limit Iran’s number of nuclear facilities and implement outside inspections in exchange for lifting international sanctions that have crippled Iran’s economy.

Without sanctions, Kagan believes Tehran could funnel revived oil revenue into further expanding its cyber program. While others share Kagan’s fears, there’s been no indication Iran plans do this.

Some experts believe the ongoing negotiations have actually kept Iran’s cyberattacks at bay. If the nuclear deal falls apart — it faces significant opposition from U.S. lawmakers — many argue Iran will unleash cyber warfare on the U.S.

Security experts also diverge on whether Iran has been launching more cyberattacks in recent months.

Cylance, a firm that tracks Iranian hacking groups, released a bombshell report in December outlining the surprising scale and breadth of Iran’s cyber efforts.

Tehran, the report found, had compromised critical infrastructure networks in more than a dozen countries, including the U.S.

But Cylance told the Times it had actually noticed a dramatic drop in Iranian hacking activity in recent months, as the nuclear discussions reached their peak.

All agree, however, that the country is pouring money into its cyber efforts. Iran is rapidly gaining ground on first-tier cyber powers, such as China, Russia and the U.S.

“I can’t think of a country that has been more focused than Iran from the high levels of government on cyber,” Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, told The Hill.