Posted on December 28, 2022 at 11:08 AM

Iran blames Europe and the US for DDoS attack on messaging services

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks have risen over the past year. Iran has been one of the countries affected by these attacks. The country was affected by a series of DDoS attacks on Sunday. According to officials, the attacks mainly originated in Europe and the United States.

Iranian messaging services targeted by DDoS attacks

The deputy telecoms minister of Iran revealed the details of this exploit. The official noted that these attacks were the largest to happen in the country since the ban on US messaging services was enforced towards the end of September.

The minister, Amir Mohammadzadeh, also added that the DDoS attacks in question were exclusive to messaging services in the country. The investigations also showed that the attacks originated from 4.399 IP addresses in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, and other countries.

The official further noted that most IP addresses were from the US and Germany. The US accounted for around 30% of the IP addresses used for the attacks, while 26% were in Germany. Mohammadzadeh further noted that the attacks were launched at 22:00 PM Iranian time on Sunday and persisted for six hours.

He added that the attack was not the largest one the country had witnessed over the past month. Nevertheless, the attack was significant, given that it targeted a crucial service, which is messaging.

According to a local news publication, Mohammadzadeh noted that Eita, one of the largest social media platforms in the country, was a victim of the DDoS attacks. He noted that the platform was the main target of these attacks. The official added that the attackers had come up with over 140 terabytes of traffic generated at a maximum rate of 30 gigabits per second.

Iran has recorded a notable rise in the adoption of online messengers. These messengers have reported a significant growth in active users since September this year. At the time, authorities in the country restricted access to the messaging service to social media platforms based in the US, such as Instagram and WhatsApp. The government restricted these platforms, alleging that they were contributing to the street unrest happening in the country.

A rise in the number of social media platforms in Iran

Earlier this month, the telecoms ministry of Iran, Issa Zarepour, released figures showing the number of daily social media users in Iran. The data showed that the number of people using social media platforms in the country had surpassed 10 million for two of the most popular platforms in the country.

According to Zarepour, the ministry analyzed the data depending on the number of active daily and monthly social media users in the country using the four leading local social media platforms.

The statistics classified usage on each of the leading social media platforms in the country. Rubika, a leading social media platform mainly owned by MCI, the first mobile operator in Iran, has 15.2 million users. The number of monthly users on the platform was at 35 million, according to the telecoms minister.

Zarepour further looked at the daily and monthly usage of Eitaa, a social media platform that is privately owned. The platform has 9.2 million daily users and 15.2 million monthly users. The numbers posted by the finance minister further showed that around 3.3 million people in the country used a social media and payments platform known as Bele, which Melli, a bank in Iran, operates.

Bele has 9.8 million active monthly users. The fourth largest social media platform in the country, Soroush Plus, had 3.5 million daily users when the report was released. The platform also boasted of having 8.1 million active monthly users, according to Zarepour.

The release of this report came around two months after the country banned the use of foreign social media platforms. Iran has been rocked by protests that have spread across the country. The ban on foreign social media platforms aims to reduce the protests’ spread and impact.

Zarepour further revealed that local internet businesses would benefit from support from the government. He released a support package in early November after announcing that the government would also fund social media platforms in Iran to make them more competitive against their foreign competitors.