Iran on Thursday strongly condemned what it called “false accusations” levelled by the United States against three of its citizens for alleged cyberattacks in the US and other countries, AFP reports.
The comments came a day after the US Justice Department unveiled indictments accusing the trio of exploiting computer vulnerabilities to extort "hundreds" of victims, including inside Britain, Australia, Iran, Russia and the United States.
In a statement on Thursday, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani "strongly condemned" the US measures against "citizens and companies on the false accusation of being involved in cyberattacks".
"Resorting to launching a propaganda campaign... against Iran is part of the failed Iranophobic policy of the American government, which of course will not lead anywhere," Kanani said, as quoted by AFP.
"The US, which has previously remained silent against numerous cyber attacks against Iran... and has even directly or indirectly supported these attacks, lacks the jurisdiction to accuse others," he added.
The Justice Department identified the three accused as Mansour Ahmadi, Ahmad Khatibi Aghda, and Amir Hossein Nikaeen Ravari.
The US Treasury also announced sanctions against the trio, saying they were linked to Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran has been blamed for a host of cyberattacks around the world in recent years, including two recent attacks that targeted Albanian systems.
Last week, Albania announced that it had severed diplomatic ties with Iran and expelled the country’s embassy staff after it blamed Iran for a July 15 cyberattack that targeted its government websites. Days later, Albania’s Interior Ministry said that one of its border systems was hit by a second cyberattack that came from the same Iranian source as the earlier attack.
Iran has rejected Albania’s accusation that it was behind the first cyberattack as "baseless" and called Albania's decision to sever diplomatic ties "an ill-considered and short-sighted action".
Iran has also been linked to cyberattacks in Israel, including last December when Israeli company Check Point identified no less than seven Iranian attacks on government ministries and large companies in Israel.