LONDON: Iran’s state media outlet Fars was hit by a cyber attack, the agency reported on Saturday.
The incident appears to be part of a larger operation aimed at discrediting the outlet, which is managed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and exposing sensitive government information.
Fars said its website was disrupted by a “sophisticated hacking and cyberattack operation” late on Friday.
“The removal of a potential bug may cause problems for some agency services for a few days,” it said in a statement posted to its Telegram channel.
It added, “Cyber attacks are carried out almost every day against the Fars news agency from various countries, including the occupied territories (Israel).”
Fars has been heavily criticized by critics for its distorted reporting of recent protests in Iran since the death of Mahsa Amini in mid-September.
The 22-year-old was arrested for allegedly flouting the country’s dress code for women and died in custody of the country’s morality police.
It appears that the hackers targeted the Twitter account of a Fars manager and posted a video on his profile.
Hacker group Black Reward claimed on Friday to have breached the agency’s database and said it had obtained confidential bulletins and instructions sent by the news agency to the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Iran has been targeted by several unidentified hacker groups in recent years.
In October, Black Reward published documents from Iran’s nuclear program after the government ignored hackers’ demands to release all political prisoners and protesters arrested during recent protests.
In past weeks, the group has also hacked the emails of state-affiliated press and TV managers and employees, obtaining personal information.