European authorities have taken action to shut down a cyber espionage operation linked to Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard in the first operation of its kind since Tehran signed a nuclear treaty, according to security researchers who located computers used to launch attacks.
The hacker group – dubbed “Rocket Kitten” by security experts who have been hunting the hacker group since early 2014 – has mounted cyberattacks on high-profile political and defense figures globally since that time.
The action is likely to hamper Tehran’s efforts to gather sensitive intelligence from rivals including Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, the United States and Venezuela, which were among the nations targeted.
Researchers from U.S.-Israeli security firm Check Point Software said the 1,600 high-profile targets include members of the Saudi royal family, Israeli nuclear scientists, NATO officials and Iranian dissidents and even the wives of high-ranking generals from unnamed countries.
The company said it had informed national computer security response teams in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands, who in turn alerted police in those countries to the locations of command and control servers used to mount attacks controlled from Iran.
