Crossroads Blog | CYBER SECURITY LAW AND POLICY

Uncategorized

US Probes Report Of Alleged Iranian Cyber-attack Plot: The Times Of India

On December 12th, 2011, the Times of India reported that US officials are looking into a possible Iranian plot to launch cyber attacks against US nuclear plants.  According to the article, in 2007, a Venezuelan diplomat "participated in the alleged plot to target sensitive US national security facilities, including nuclear power plants."  That same diplomat, Livia Antonieta Acosta, is currently a US based Venezuelan diplomat.  These allegations all came from a television documentary. 

The story sounds a bit crazy, but apparently the State Department has gotten involved.  The article quotes a State Department deputy spokesman as saying "We did see the Univision report and are cognizant of the allegations they've made . . . we obviously take Iranian activity in the hemisphere seriously."  The same official noted that there is no corroborating evidence.

Moreover, four US Congressional representatives have sent a letter to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton expressing their concern over the Venezuelan diplomat.  That letter can be found here, via the Intra-American Security Watch.

It's too early to make anything of this, but it will be interesting to see how this story develops.

The source article can be found here.

Leave a Reply