Iran says major US tech companies are targets in the Middle East, and drone strikes and cyberattacks are already underway

Iran has listed several major American technology companies as potential targets as it expands its attacks across the Middle East in retaliation for continued attacks by the United States and Israel against its military and security forces and leaders.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, which is linked to the country’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, published a list of major American technology companies in a social media post on Tuesday, which included Amazon, Microsoft, Palantir and Oracle, with the title: “The enemy’s technological infrastructure: Iran’s new targets in the region.”

Iranian drone attacks have already damaged data centers in the region and hit Amazon facilities in two countries last week.

The list published by Tasnim was accompanied by the threat that, “with the expansion of the dimensions of the regional war towards infrastructure, cyber warfare and outreach, Iran’s legitimate objectives are gradually expanding.”

The companies named by Iran have offices, research and development centers, data centers and cloud infrastructure throughout the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Bahrain.

News themezone has requested comment from the companies named by Tasnim on the measures they are taking to protect staff and interests in the region.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told News themezone on Thursday that “the United States has been prepared for Operation Epic Fury for some time and we are aware of all potential Iranian targets.”

“As things stand, the Iranian terrorist regime is being absolutely crushed. The United States is meeting or exceeding all of its benchmarks: Iranian ballistic missile attacks are down 90 percent and drone strikes are down 83 percent,” Kelly said.

Last week, Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud platform, said Iranian drone attacks had damaged two of its facilities in the United Arab Emirates, while another drone landed very close to its facilities in Bahrain, damaging some of its infrastructure.

“These attacks have caused structural damage, disrupted power to our infrastructure, and in some cases required firefighting activities that resulted in additional water damage. We are working closely with local authorities and prioritizing the safety of our staff throughout our recovery efforts,” Amazon Web Services said.

On Wednesday, American medical technology giant Stryker acknowledged that it had been hit by a cyberattack that caused a “temporary global network outage in our Microsoft environment.”

The company said Thursday that it had “no indication of malware or ransomware and we believe the situation is limited solely to our internal Microsoft environment.”

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the logo of Handala, a hacking group linked to Iran, had appeared on Stryker login pages.

Brian Krebs, a cybersecurity analyst, said in a blog post on Wednesday that the hacking group had acknowledged responsibility for the attack in social media posts, which he said had been removed from Telegram.

“Our major cyber operation has been executed with complete success,” the group’s post said, according to Krebs.

Chris Krebs, former director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security, told News Mornings that links between the group and Iran are “hazy.”

“The significant thing about where we are right now is that it’s almost an all-hands-on-deck approach by Iran. All of their groups, whether they’re directly linked to the military or intelligence or their proxies, hacktivists, sympathizers, whatever you want to call them, they’re all going after targets,” Krebs told News Mornings on Thursday.

In a regulatory filing Wednesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Stryker said an investigation into the incident was underway and that “the operational and financial impacts of the incident are not yet known.”

Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks says in its Handala profile that the group is directly linked to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security and that it carries out “cyber operations against the Israeli political and defense establishment.”

News themezone sister network BBC News reported last week that tech giants Amazon, Google, Snap and Nvidia are among many American companies that have implemented emergency protocols to protect the safety of thousands of workers across the Middle East.