The Israel National Cyber Directorate officially confirmed Tuesday that Iran was behind the cyberattack on the Technion leading engineering university last month.
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The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa was targeted by hackers in early February. According to Tuesday's announcement, those responsible for the attack is a group affiliated with Iran's Intelligence and Security Ministry.
The institute's website went down and students were asked to log off. The hackers demanded a ransom of 80 bitcoins from Technion, which is equivalent to $1,747,971.
Earlier, Israeli media said the cyberattack was carried out by a group called Darkbit. According to the university, it was targeted as a punishment "for the 'apartheid' regime."
Technion is the flagship of scientific research in Israel and trains thousands of high-level engineers every year. In September 2022, a group of what is believed to be pro-Iranian hackers stole and published personal information of 30,000 Israeli teachers and students.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
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