Israel is likely to be behind a cyber attack on computers at Iran's Shahid Rajaee port that took place earlier this month, according to the Washington Post report. The May 9 attack caused massive backups on waterways and roads leading to the facility.
Citing unnamed U.S. and foreign government officials, the report said the hack is believed to be carried out in retaliation for Iranian attempt to target Israeli water infrastructure.
“Computers that regulate the flow of vessels, trucks and goods all crashed at once,creating massive backups on waterways and roads leading to the facility,” the Post reported, adding that it had seen satellite photos showing miles-long traffic jams leading to the port and ships still waiting to offload several days later.
The managing director of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization, Mohammad Rastad, told Iran’s ILNA news agency last week that the attackers failed to penetrate the PMO’s systems and were only able to infiltrate and damage a number of private operating systems.
The Israeli embassy in Washington or the Israel Defense Forces did not provide any comments on the report, the Post said.
In April Israeli authorities said the country’s water infrastructure was hit by a series of cyber attacks, after which employees at Israeli companies involved in the country's water and sewage systems were instructed to change their passwords.
Earlier this month reports emerged that Iran used U.S. servers to carry out the attack on Israeli water facilities.