FBI Discloses Thwarted Iranian Cyber Attack Against Boston Children’s Hospital

(New York, N.Y.) — Speaking today at the Boston Conference on Cyber Security, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray disclosed an attempted Iranian cyberattack against Boston Children’s Hospital. Acting on a tip from “one of our intelligence partners” last summer, Director Wray said, the FBI and hospital officials worked quickly to thwart the Iranian regime. This took place as the U.S. and the P4+1 were negotiating with Iran in Vienna to revive the nuclear deal.

Tehran has repeatedly targeted U.S. and international non-governmental organizations, including those in the health sector. In 2020, Iranian actors targeted the World Health Organization (WHO) and a U.S. pharmaceutical company during the COVID-19 outbreak.  

Iran has previously hacked into the servers of U.S. financial institutions and the control system of a dam in upstate New York, carried out a data deletion attack against the network of a Las Vegas casinos, targeted federal, state and local government websites, and made attempts to gain access to email accounts belonging to U.S. government officials and military personnel. Israel, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Great Britain and other nations have also been targets of Iranian cyberattacks.  

To read UANI’s resource The Iranian Cyber Threat, please click here. 

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