Iran's crypto exchange loses $100M to hackers, sparking internet blackout as conflict with Israel continues
Iran's crypto exchange market lost $100 million in assets to hackers, triggering a near nationwide internet blackout as the Islamic Republic's fight with Israel escalates.
The blackouts have carried on into Thursday after the state limited internet access to the public over the cyberattack on Nobitex, Tehran's largest cryptocurrency exchange, according to Iran's ministry of Communications.
The pro-Israeli 'Predatory Sparrow' hacker group claimed responsibility for the attack, accusing Nobitex of helping Tehran evade Western sanctions and transferring money to Iran's nuclear program.
Advertisement
Nobitex, Iran's largest cryptocurrency exchange, was hacked and as a result lost $100 million in assets.
REUTERS
'ASSETS LEFT IN NOBITEX ARE NOW ENTIRELY OUT IN THE OPEN,' the group touted on Telegram.
While Nobitex has yet to publicly confirm the attack, the company shut down its app and website to assess 'unauthorized access' found on its systems.
Advertisement
The gutting of Nobitex included the thefts of several cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and more, according to Andrew Fierman, Chainalysis' head of national security intelligence.
'[The attack is] particularly significant given the comparatively modest size of Iran's cryptocurrency market,' he said.
Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here!
Predatory Sparrow has previously claimed responsibility for other high-level cyberattacks on Iran, including the 2021 hack that saw the nation's gas stations come to a halt — as well as the 2022 attack that sparked a large fire at a steel mill.
Advertisement
While Israel has touted the group's hacks in the past and suggested it had connections with the Jewish state, Jerusalem has never officially acknowledged ties to Predatory Sparrow.
The blackout lasted into Thursday as the pro-Israeli 'Predatory Sparrow' hacker group claimed responsibility for the attack.
Reuters
Netblock, a company that tracks global internet access, said the latest internet blackout in Iran is the worst the nation has seen since 2019's civil unrest.
With Post wires
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time Magazine
36 minutes ago
- Time Magazine
Did Iran Try to Kill Trump? What to Know
One thing is clear: Israel openly wants to kill Iran's Supreme Leader. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ' can no longer be allowed to exist,' Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday, just days after U.S. President Donald Trump publicly announced that the U.S. knows Khamenei's location but is holding off on killing him ' for now.' Another isn't so much, depending on who you ask. 'I've never heard that before,' former Fox News host Tucker Carlson responded quizzically after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) asserted that Iran has tried—and is trying—to kill Trump. 'We should attack Iran immediately if that's true,' Carlson, one of the flagbearers of the anti-war wing within the factious MAGA right, facetiously continued. Cruz argued that he doesn't think the U.S. military attacking Iran or killing Khamenei would necessarily be the most appropriate response to the threat against the U.S. President, but he insisted that 'nobody disputes' Iran is indeed trying to assassinate Trump. 'It's an objective fact,' Cruz posted on X after the interview. A U.S. attack on Iran, including potentially targeting Khamenei, may yet be in the cards, despite Trump's political campaigns against military interventions aimed at ' regime change.' But it's unlikely to be in retaliation to an Iranian assassination plot—unless such a plot is successful. Earlier this year, Trump said he had ordered the annihilation of the state of Iran if it assassinates him. 'That would be a terrible thing for them to do,' he told reporters in February. 'Not because of me. If they did that, they would be obliterated. That would be the end. I've left instructions: if they do it, they get obliterated. There won't be anything left.' Iran is known to conduct assassination plots overseas, usually targeting Iranian dissidents and not always successful. Iranian officials have also been vowing to kill Trump for years after he ordered the assassination of Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who led the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, in January 2020. Still, as the U.S. has even charged would-be assassins, Iran has denied ever targeting Trump. Politico reported last July that the U.S. intelligence community had collected increasing evidence suggesting Iran was actively working on plots to kill Trump. Neither of the attempts that summer on Trump's life in Butler, Pa., or West Palm Beach, Fla., have been linked to Iran, though the shooter in the latter expressed support for Iran in public writings. But around the same time, a 46-year-old Pakistani national named Asif Merchant was arrested in Texas and charged with seeking to kill high-ranking U.S. politicians or officials—potentially including Trump—allegedly under the instructions of Iran. 'We have not received any reports on this matter from the U.S. Government,' a spokesperson for Iran's United Nations Mission told CNN at the time. 'However, it is evident that the modus operandi in question contradicts the Iranian Government's policy of legally prosecuting the murderer of General Soleimani.' In September, Trump's campaign said he had been briefed on 'real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him.' 'Big threats on my life by Iran,' Trump posted on social media. 'The entire U.S. Military is watching and waiting. Moves were already made by Iran that didn't work out, but they will try again.' The Biden Administration sent a warning through Switzerland in September that an assassination attempt against Trump would be seen as an act of war, to which Iran responded in October—again via Swiss diplomats—that it would not try to kill Trump, U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal. In November 2024, after Trump was elected, the Justice Department announced charges against a 51-year-old Afghan national named Farhad Shakeri, who was allegedly tasked by Iranian officials to assemble a plan to surveil and assassinate Trump. 'A new scenario is fabricated,' Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X. 'The American people have made their decision. And Iran respects their right to elect the President of their choice. The path forward is also a choice. It begins with respect.' Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei claimed the allegations were part of a 'repulsive' plot by Israel to sabotage U.S.-Iran relations. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told NBC in January that Iran 'never attempted' to kill Trump, 'and we never will.' 'This is another one of those schemes that Israel and other countries are designing to promote Iranophobia,' Pezeshkian said. 'Iran has never attempted to nor does it plan to assassinate anyone. At least as far as I know.' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who derailed U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations by launching strikes last week against Iran and is reportedly trying to sway Trump to authorize more direct U.S. military involvement in the conflict, claimed in a Fox News interview on Sunday that Iran actively worked to assassinate Trump because he's 'forceful' and 'decisive.' 'They want to kill him,' Netanyahu insisted. 'He's enemy number one.'
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Orbán's anti-Ukraine campaign targets political rival as Hungary's elections loom
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — As Hungary heads toward national elections next spring and the populist government's popularity slumps, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has zeroed in on a central theme he hopes will sway voters: an alleged threat posed by neighboring Ukraine. While most European Union countries have offered political, financial, and military support to Kyiv since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Hungary under Orbán has charted a starkly different course — refusing to supply Ukraine with weapons or allow their transit through Hungarian territory, demanding sanctions relief and rapprochement with Russia, and adopting a combative stance toward both Kyiv and its EU backers. With his ruling Fidesz party slipping in the polls and a new opposition force gaining momentum, Orbán has escalated a sweeping anti-Ukraine campaign — presenting the upcoming election as a referendum on peace or war. Going further, he has accused his leading political opponent of entering into a treasonous pact with Kyiv to overthrow his government and install a pro-Western, pro-Ukraine administration. Some of his ideas mirror the growing anti-Ukraine messaging coming from right-wing populists in the West, including from President Donald Trump. 'Let's be under no illusions: Brussels and Ukraine are jointly building up a puppet government (in Hungary),' Orbán said on June 6 in comments to state radio. 'They want to change Hungary's policy toward Ukraine after the next elections, or even sooner.' At the heart of Orbán's claims is Ukraine's ambition to join the EU, something Kyiv believes would place it firmly within the embrace of the West and provide a measure of security against potential Russian attacks in the future. While Orbán was a firm supporter of Ukraine's eventual EU accession shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, he now argues that its membership — which will likely take many years — would flood Hungary with crime, cheap labor, and low-quality agricultural products, threatening national sovereignty and economic stability. He has also spuriously claimed that Brussels and Kyiv intend to force Hungarians to fight Russia on the front lines. On Monday, Orbán posted a video to his social media page depicting animated, artificial intelligence-generated scenes of bloodied, machine-gun wielding Hungarian soldiers engaged in armed conflict, and rows of caskets lined beneath Hungarian flags. 'We don't want our children, in the form of the Hungarian army, to be deployed to the Ukrainian front lines or to Ukrainian territory and to come back in coffins,' he said in the video. Central to Orbán's life-or-death narrative of the Hungarian election is his growing campaign against his main political rival, Péter Magyar, a former Fidesz insider whose new Tisza party has surged in popularity. Once married to Hungary's former justice minister, Magyar has become the most formidable challenger to Orbán's rule since the EU's longest-serving leader took office in 2010. With Tisza leading Fidesz in most independent polls, some analysts and domestic critics believe Orbán may be laying the groundwork to discredit or even disqualify Magyar ahead of the 2026 election. Péter Krekó, director of the Budapest-based Political Capital think tank, said Orbán's attempt to link Magyar and Tisza to the image of a dangerous Ukraine is aimed at neutralizing his domestic opposition as popular sentiment appears to be turning against him. 'There is an ongoing campaign against any critical voices in Hungary saying that they are agents of Ukraine, and this can be used also against the Tisza party,' he told The Associated Press. 'If you can't win back public opinion anymore, then you can try to use a more authoritarian toolkit.' Beyond political rhetoric, such accusations have reached the highest levels of diplomacy. In May, Ukraine's main security agency said that it had arrested two people on suspicion of spying for Hungary by gathering intelligence on Ukraine's military defenses in the west of the country. That set off a tit-for-tat series of diplomatic expulsions, and accusations from Hungary's government that the affair was part of a concerted Ukrainian campaign involving Magyar and his party to undermine Orbán. The prime minister accused Magyar and Tisza of being 'pro-Ukrainian' and supporting Ukraine's EU bid, and alleging that a prominent Tisza member, the former chief of staff of the Hungarian military, has 'deep ties with Ukrainian intelligence.' No evidence has been provided to support the claims, which Magyar has dismissed outright. 'It is outrageous and blood-boiling when a patriot who trained and prepared to be a soldier since the age of 14 and who took a military oath … is accused of treason by people who would sell their country out,' Magyar told a news conference on June 5. To reinforce its message, the Hungarian government launched a state-funded communication blitz in March, accompanied by a non-binding 'national consultation' on Ukraine's EU membership. Billboards, television ads, and social media posts have flooded the country, portraying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the architects of a plot to undermine, or even destroy Hungary. 'They would bring Ukraine into the EU, but we would pay the price!' reads one poster. 'Let's vote no!' Ukrainian officials have been restrained in reacting to the Hungarian campaign. But in an interview published last week in Hungarian outlet Válasz Online, Zelenskyy criticized the government's use of his face as part of its media barrage, and accused Orbán of being 'anti-Ukrainian and anti-European.' 'He is using this in his domestic policy: he wants to turn the war in Ukraine to his own advantage in the elections. That is dishonest,' Zelenskyy said. In a post on X on Tuesday, Ukraine's foreign ministry also pushed back on Hungary's accusations. 'The Hungarian government's communication line, which demonizes Ukraine and President Zelenskyy, has gone off the rails,' the ministry's spokesman, Heorhii Tykhyi, wrote. 'We don't see Hungary demanding that Russia accept a ceasefire … They remain silent when principled action is needed and make baseless accusations when diplomacy is required.'
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Orbán's anti-Ukraine campaign targets political rival as Hungary's elections loom
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — As Hungary heads toward national elections next spring and the populist government's popularity slumps, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has zeroed in on a central theme he hopes will sway voters: an alleged threat posed by neighboring Ukraine. While most European Union countries have offered political, financial, and military support to Kyiv since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Hungary under Orbán has charted a starkly different course — refusing to supply Ukraine with weapons or allow their transit through Hungarian territory, demanding sanctions relief and rapprochement with Russia, and adopting a combative stance toward both Kyiv and its EU backers. With his ruling Fidesz party slipping in the polls and a new opposition force gaining momentum, Orbán has escalated a sweeping anti-Ukraine campaign — presenting the upcoming election as a referendum on peace or war. Going further, he has accused his leading political opponent of entering into a treasonous pact with Kyiv to overthrow his government and install a pro-Western, pro-Ukraine administration. Orbán opposes Ukraine's accession to the EU Some of his ideas mirror the growing anti-Ukraine messaging coming from right-wing populists in the West, including from President Donald Trump. 'Let's be under no illusions: Brussels and Ukraine are jointly building up a puppet government (in Hungary),' Orbán said on June 6 in comments to state radio. 'They want to change Hungary's policy toward Ukraine after the next elections, or even sooner.' At the heart of Orbán's claims is Ukraine's ambition to join the EU, something Kyiv believes would place it firmly within the embrace of the West and provide a measure of security against potential Russian attacks in the future. While Orbán was a firm supporter of Ukraine's eventual EU accession shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, he now argues that its membership — which will likely take many years — would flood Hungary with crime, cheap labor, and low-quality agricultural products, threatening national sovereignty and economic stability. He has also spuriously claimed that Brussels and Kyiv intend to force Hungarians to fight Russia on the front lines. On Monday, Orbán posted a video to his social media page depicting animated, artificial intelligence-generated scenes of bloodied, machine-gun wielding Hungarian soldiers engaged in armed conflict, and rows of caskets lined beneath Hungarian flags. 'We don't want our children, in the form of the Hungarian army, to be deployed to the Ukrainian front lines or to Ukrainian territory and to come back in coffins,' he said in the video. Campaign targets the main opposition leader Central to Orbán's life-or-death narrative of the Hungarian election is his growing campaign against his main political rival, Péter Magyar, a former Fidesz insider whose new Tisza party has surged in popularity. Once married to Hungary's former justice minister, Magyar has become the most formidable challenger to Orbán's rule since the EU's longest-serving leader took office in 2010. With Tisza leading Fidesz in most independent polls, some analysts and domestic critics believe Orbán may be laying the groundwork to discredit or even disqualify Magyar ahead of the 2026 election. Péter Krekó, director of the Budapest-based Political Capital think tank, said Orbán's attempt to link Magyar and Tisza to the image of a dangerous Ukraine is aimed at neutralizing his domestic opposition as popular sentiment appears to be turning against him. 'There is an ongoing campaign against any critical voices in Hungary saying that they are agents of Ukraine, and this can be used also against the Tisza party," he told The Associated Press. "If you can't win back public opinion anymore, then you can try to use a more authoritarian toolkit.' Beyond political rhetoric, such accusations have reached the highest levels of diplomacy. In May, Ukraine's main security agency said that it had arrested two people on suspicion of spying for Hungary by gathering intelligence on Ukraine's military defenses in the west of the country. That set off a tit-for-tat series of diplomatic expulsions, and accusations from Hungary's government that the affair was part of a concerted Ukrainian campaign involving Magyar and his party to undermine Orbán. The prime minister accused Magyar and Tisza of being 'pro-Ukrainian' and supporting Ukraine's EU bid, and alleging that a prominent Tisza member, the former chief of staff of the Hungarian military, has 'deep ties with Ukrainian intelligence.' No evidence has been provided to support the claims, which Magyar has dismissed outright. 'It is outrageous and blood-boiling when a patriot who trained and prepared to be a soldier since the age of 14 and who took a military oath ... is accused of treason by people who would sell their country out,' Magyar told a news conference on June 5. Ukraine pushes back To reinforce its message, the Hungarian government launched a state-funded communication blitz in March, accompanied by a non-binding 'national consultation' on Ukraine's EU membership. Billboards, television ads, and social media posts have flooded the country, portraying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the architects of a plot to undermine, or even destroy Hungary. 'They would bring Ukraine into the EU, but we would pay the price!' reads one poster. 'Let's vote no!' Ukrainian officials have been restrained in reacting to the Hungarian campaign. But in an interview published last week in Hungarian outlet Válasz Online, Zelenskyy criticized the government's use of his face as part of its media barrage, and accused Orbán of being "anti-Ukrainian and anti-European." 'He is using this in his domestic policy: he wants to turn the war in Ukraine to his own advantage in the elections. That is dishonest,' Zelenskyy said. In a post on X on Tuesday, Ukraine's foreign ministry also pushed back on Hungary's accusations. 'The Hungarian government's communication line, which demonizes Ukraine and President Zelenskyy, has gone off the rails,' the ministry's spokesman, Heorhii Tykhyi, wrote. 'We don't see Hungary demanding that Russia accept a ceasefire ... They remain silent when principled action is needed and make baseless accusations when diplomacy is required.'
