Iran's elite military force has intensified cyberattacks against email and social media accounts of Obama administration officials in recent weeks, seemingly linked to the arrest of an Iranian-American businessman in Tehran, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The attacks have mainly targeted officials involved in crafting Iran policy, with those hacked including officials working at the State Department's Office of Iranian Affairs and its Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, as well as journalists and academics, the WSJ noted, citing unnamed sources.
The efforts are believed to be orchestrated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and surged after last month's arrest of Siamak Namazi, an energy industry executive and business consultant who has encouraged stronger diplomatic and economic ties between Iran and the U.S. Namazi's friends and business associates told the WSJ that the intelligence arm of the IRGC confiscated his computer after searching his family's home in Tehran, suggesting that the IRGC targeted people based on data seized from his computer.
Namazi is the head of strategic planning for Crescent Petroleum, a United Arab Emirates-based oil and gas company that has worked for think tanks in Washington, according to Reuters. He had been detained and interrogated multiple times before his arrest.
A senior Obama administration official told Reuters that they "are aware of certain reports involving Iran," but could not "comment on the specific reports."
"We are aware that hackers in Iran and elsewhere often use cyberattacks to gain information or make connections with targets of interest," the official said.
The attacks come after a landmark agreement was reached in July between Iran and six world powers, which will ease international economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran curbing its nuclear program to prevent it from developing atomic weapons.
The Obama administration has said that it believes the accord could improve relations between the U.S. and Iran. However, the WSJ notes that the recent cyberattacks indicate "that hard-line factions inside the regime, including the military and office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, haven't moderated their hostility toward Washington despite the landmark accord between Iran and six global powers including the U.S."
