Operations at Iranian gas stations were disrupted today. Cyber attack or computer glitch?

A cyberattack has disrupted gas stations from the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) across Iran.

A cyber attack has disrupted gas stations from the state-owned National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) across Iran. The attack also defaced the screens at the gas pumps and gas price billboards.

In multiple cities, the billboards were displaying messages like “Khamenei! Where’s our fuel?” and “Free gas at [local gas station’s name].”

After the attack, the screens at the impacted NIOPDC gas stations were showing the words “cyebrattack 64411,” which is the phone number for the office of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

NIOPDC currently manages more than 3,500 gas stations across the country.

The operations at the gas pumps were interrupted immediately after the incident because the employees were not able to charge customers for the fuel they were buying.

At this time, no one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Iranian authorities speculate the incident was the result of a cyber attack orchestrated by a foreign, hostile state.

The Iranian TV confirmed that the root cause of the incident is a nationwide cyber-attack that targeted petrol stations.

The message “cyberattack 64411” was also shown on the billboards of Iranian train stations during another attack that took place in July and that hit Iran’s railroad system.

A Ministry of Oil spokesperson downplayed the news of a “cyberattack” and stated that the incident was caused by a software glitch.

At the time of this writing, the operations at the gas stations have resumed.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Iran)

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