Russia supplies Iran with cyber weapons in exchange for drones and ammunition, WSJ says
Iran supports Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine (Photo:REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado)
In exchange for combat UAVs, short-range missiles, and ammunition for tanks and artillery, Russia provides cyber warfare capabilities to Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported on March 27.
According to the report, Russia has long resisted sharing its “digital-offensive” technology with Iran, despite the countries’ long-standing cybersecurity partnership. At some point after launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow decided its need for security assistance from Tehran outweighs the risk of finding its cyber warfare equipment being resold “on the dark web.”
WSJ’s sources said Russia has supplied Iran with surveillance and intelligence gathering equipment, hidden cameras, and lie detectors. Furthermore, the sources alleged Moscow may have even supplied sophisticated software that would enable the Iranian regime to hack into phones of dissidents and opposition activists – something Tehran is very much in need of, given months-long riots it grappled with in 2022.
University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab asserts that Russian company PROTEI ltd started supplying Iranian telecom company Ariantel with censorship software, making it possible for Tehran to control, redirect, and block mobile communications across Iran.
CNN previously reported that Russia sends some of the pieces of Western military equipment it captures in Ukraine to Iran – presumably to examine them and reverse-engineer countermeasures.
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