Cyberattack on Four Iranian Banks

On the evening of Saturday, June 13, the Coordination Council of Iranian Banks announced that a widespread disruption in the services of four of the country’s banks occurred following a “limited cyberattack.”

Extent of the Disruption

In a statement acknowledging ongoing restrictions for customers of Bank Melli, Bank Tejarat, Bank Saderat, and the Export Development Bank, the Council announced that the process of restoring services to normal is underway and that banking services will resume as quickly as possible.

Before this confirmation, domestic media had reported simultaneous disruptions in the electronic services of these four banks. The outage had knocked several services offline, including:

Mobile banking appsInternet banking platformsATMs (Automated Teller Machines)POS (Point of Sale) terminalsCertain card-based servicesData Security and Official Responses

The Coordination Council of Banks confirmed the cyberattack but emphasized that no unauthorized access to customer data occurred and that no data leaks have been reported. 

Alireza Gheytasi, the Secretary of the Coordination Council of Banks, stated in an interview with the IRIB News Agency: “All relevant infrastructures are under the control of technical experts, and operations to secure and restore the systems are being carried out rapidly.”

Neither the published statement nor the remarks by banking officials made any reference to the origin of the cyberattack or its suspected perpetrators. Cyberattacks targeting Iran’s banking network have occurred repeatedly in recent years. In previous instances, security breaches led to customer data from certain banks being leaked online or offered for sale on the dark web.