Iran rejects involvement in recent Albania cyberattack

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iran on Monday “seriously and decisively” rejected its involvement in Albania’s renewed cyberattack while blaming the Balkan nation for housing opposition Iranian groups.

Albania blamed the Iranian government for a cyberattack against computer systems used by the country’s state police on Saturday, a day after the US imposed new sanctions on Tehran over a hack that disrupted Albanian government services in July.

Iran on Monday responded to the new allegations, denying involvement.

“We reiterate that we seriously and decisively reject any accusations against the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding the alleged cyberattack on Albania,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said during his weekly press conference.

Albania, a NATO member, severed diplomatic ties with Iran and ordered its embassy staff to leave the country on Wednesday over July’s cyberattack. It became the first country to cut diplomatic relations over such an incident.

The US treasury on Friday sanctioned Iran’s intelligence agency in response to the cyberattacks against its NATO ally after a Microsoft blog post revealed that the hackers conducting the attack belonged to a group publicly linked to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security. 

According to Kanaani, Iran has previously offered help to the Albanian government to address the concerns of the attack and blamed “third parties” for influencing Albania’s decision.

Iran’s intelligence agency has since 2007 been accused of carrying out cyber operations targeting public and private entities around the world.

Tehran and Tirana share bitter ties, originating from when the Balkan state took in some 3,000 members of the exiled Iranian opposition group Mojahedin e-Khalq (MEK).

“It is unfortunate that the government of Albania, as a country that hosts a known organization and a terrorist organization, has made claims against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Kanaani added.

Iran considers the MEK a terrorist organization and blames it for thousands of deaths since the group took up arms against Tehran.

The majority of MEK members have taken refuge in Europe and the US, increasingly so after the US toppled the Baath regime in Iraq in 2003, where they had military bases, which neighboring Iran considered a threat to its security.