Iranian government cybercriminals are trying to steal German protected documents with the aim of circumventing sanctions

 

Iranian government cybercriminals are trying to steal German protected documents with the aim of circumventing sanctions.

Iranian government cybercriminals are trying to steal German protected documents with the aim of circumventing sanctions

Friday, May 15, 2021

In a report, the Berlin-based intelligence agency reported an increase in the number of pro-Iranian terrorist groups in Germany, saying that members of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah in Lebanon and supporters of the Iranian regime had increased in the past two years.

The report states that Iranian cyber activists are trying to gain access to German protected information in order to find a way to circumvent the sanctions.

The 136-page report by the Berlin-based intelligence agency, parts of which were published by Jerusalem Post, states that the number of Hamas members in Germany has risen from 70 in 2019 to 80 in 2020.

According to the report, the number of Muslim Brotherhood supporters has increased from 100 in 2019 to 150 in 2020. The Lebanese Shiite organization and the Hezbollah movement also had 250 active members in Berlin in 2019 and 2020.

These groups are supporters of the Islamic Republic and are classified as terrorist groups by the United States and the European Union.

In the Berlin intelligence report, the name of the Iranian government as a government supporting terrorist groups is mentioned 13 times. The report states that there are 2,170 people in Berlin who are attributed to extremist Islamist groups and are likely to endanger the country's security by carrying out terrorist attacks. Earlier in 2020, the German government banned all Lebanese Hezbollah activities in the Federal Republic.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Berlin, as the regulatory authority for this document, has the task of monitoring and documenting events that endanger the democratic order of the country. The intelligence agency is said to be roughly equivalent to Shin Bet (Israel's security agency).

Elsewhere in the report, it is reported that the Iranian, Chinese and Russian regimes are active in cyber espionage, and that the Islamic Republic's cyber-operators intend to gain access to protected information in Germany.

For example, recently the employees of some German companies received fake job offers via fake emails, but while running the programs, users' information was stolen and downloaded by malware.