Iran claims US used backdoors to knock out networking equipment during war
And China is loving it
Iranian media is claiming that the US used backdoors and/or botnets to disable networking equipment during the current war, and Chinese state media is dining out on the allegations.
Reports from Iran claim hardware made by Cisco, Juniper, Fortinet, and MikroTik either rebooted or disconnected during recent attacks on Iran – despite the regime disconnecting the nation from the global internet.
The reports suggest that’s only possible because someone – probably the US – can sabotage the equipment at will.
The report linked to above hypothesizes that a hidden backdoor in firmware or bootloader allows remote attacks at a pre-determined time or can be activated by a signal from a satellite. In either scenario, the US uses the backdoor to bring down networks at the most inconvenient moment for Iran.
Related Knowledge Center: Digital privacy and data security
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