Iran Says Cyberattack Causes Widespread Disruption at Gas Stations

A cyberattack disrupted the sale of heavily subsidized gasoline in Iran on Tuesday, state media reported, causing long queues at gas stations across the country weeks before the anniversary of 2019 street protests that followed fuel price hikes.

Iran says it is on high alert for online assaults, which it has blamed in the past on its arch-foes United States and Israel. The United States and other Western powers meanwhile have accused Iran of trying to disrupt and break into their networks.

"The disruption at the refueling system of gas stations ... in the past few hours, was caused by a cyberattack," state broadcaster IRIB said. "Technical experts are fixing the problem and soon the refueling process...will return to normal."

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.

"This attack was probably carried out by a foreign country. It is too early to announce by which country and in which way it was done," Abolhassan Firouzabadi, secretary of Iran's Supreme Council of Cyberspace, told state TV.

Videos posted on social media showed apparently-hacked digital street signs. Reuters could not independently authenticate the videos but Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency confirmed that some signs had been hacked.

Industry officials told state TV that nearly half of gas stations had reopened as technicians rushed to activate manual settings after online functions were paralyzed by hackers. Officials gave assurances there were no fuel shortages and that the remaining stations would reopen by mid-day on Wednesday.

The Oil Minister Javad Owji said that 2,200 fuel stations have been activated offline so far, and in some of fuel stations, refueling via the smart fuel cards have been activated. He also strongly denied gasoline price hike. 

The offline refueling systems of all stations would be set up by Wednesday morning, and by evening of the same day the smart refueling system would be activated, Owji emphasized.

The managing director of the National Iranian Oil Products Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) said the problem of fuel supply in all stations is being solved manually and it will be solved within the next few hours in all fuel supply stations across the country. Jalil Salari said: "The disruption was caused by a communication problem between the fuel supply station systems and the central system, which is being investigated and resolved."

He emphasized: “To solve this problem, we are taking actions manually and activate the offline system inside the stations by installing software, and the connection between the terminal and the center has been established in some stations.” The Deputy Minister of Petroleum for Refining and Distribution Affairs said: "Currently, refueling has been made possible in about 15 fuel supply stations in Tehran, and we have done the same in some provinces." Reacting to the possibility of cyberattack, he said: "This case is currently being investigated to see if it was a software problem or a cyberattack."

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 what state media said was a "cyber disruption". Also in July, train services were delayed by apparent cyberattacks. The computer virus Stuxnet, which is widely believed to have been developed by the United States and Israel, 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. - Reuters, Shana