Huge hacking operation by Iran against Sweden

Thousands of mobile phone customers in Sweden received text messages in the summer of 2023 calling for revenge for the Koran burnings at the time. It is now clear who is behind the text messages.

According to Swedish reports, Iran has responded to Quran burnings in the summer of 2023 with a massive hacking operation. Iranian hackers had taken over a major SMS service of a Swedish company and sent around 15,000 messages calling for revenge against “Koran abusers”, the Swedish public prosecutor’s office announced.

The aim of the action was to influence public opinion in Sweden and create division in Swedish society, explained the public prosecutor responsible, Mats Ljungqvist. Iran did not initially respond to the accusations.

Diplomatic trouble in the middle of the NATO process

Sweden had experienced several Koran burnings in the summer of 2023, which had triggered violent protests in a number of countries as well as diplomatic anger. This came at the worst possible time for the Scandinavian EU country: at the time, the government in Stockholm was still struggling to get Turkey and Hungary to agree to Sweden joining Nato. The burning of the Holy Scriptures of Islam contributed to the Turkish leadership further blocking Sweden’s admission to the defense alliance at the time.

At the time, thousands of mobile phone customers in Sweden had received text messages calling for revenge against the Koran-burners. Under Ljungqvist’s leadership, the Swedish intelligence service Säpo then began an investigation to determine who was behind the intrusion into the company’s data systems and the purpose of the operation. The result: the Iranian state had carried out the hacking operation via the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), explained Ljungqvist. The identity of the hackers had been established and the investigation had been closed.

As the people behind the crime were acting on behalf of a foreign power, the investigator does not believe that they can be prosecuted. However, as long as the crimes are not time-barred, the investigation could be reopened, said Ljungqvist.

dpa