US Conducted Cyberattack on Alleged Iranian Spy Ship

The US recently conducted a cyberattack against an alleged Iranian spy ship that has been operating near Djibouti, NBC News reported Thursday, citing US officials.

One US official identified the ship as the MV Behshad, which is registered as a cargo ship in Iran. The US claims the Behshad is used to provide intelligence to the Houthis, while Iran’s ambassador to the UN insisted last week that the vessel is in the Red Sea “to combat the piracy activities” and is not involved in Houthi operations.

The nature of the cyberattack on Behshad is unclear. The US officials said it was intended to disrupt the vessel’s alleged intelligence operations.

The cyberattack occurred about a week ago and was part of the US response to the drone attack that killed three members of the US Army Reserve and wounded about 40 Arizona National Guardsmen at a secretive US base in Jordan near the Syrian border. The Pentagon admitted it had no evidence Iran was involved in the Jordan attack but blamed Tehran anyway because it arms the Shia militias the US believes were responsible.

The US also launched heavy airstrikes on Iraq and Syria on February 2 following the Jordan attack, which killed about 40 people, mostly members of militia groups. The monitoring group Airwars said reports of civilian deaths in the US strikes on Iraq are credible, and up to three civilians may have been killed.

The US said the strikes on Iraq and Syria targeted Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), but no Iranians were killed in the attack. Before the US launched the airstrikes, US officials told the media that they were planning to conduct cyberattacks against Iran.

The US has a history of conducting cyber operations against Iran, the most infamous being the Stuxnet virus that was designed by US and Israeli intelligence and targeted Iran’s civilian nuclear program in 2010.