Iran bans officials from communicating on public networks

Cyber chiefs in Iran have banned officials from using devices connected to public networks, as the country battles an Israeli army that has previously killed dozens with exploding pagers.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Cyber Security Command issued the instruction to officials and their teams, Fars news agency reported. It came as Israel is expanding its air campaign on Tehran five days after its surprise attack on Iran's military and nuclear programme.

It signals fears in Iran that Israel may use wireless devices in attacks on Iranian officials, as it did with Lebanon's Hezbollah members during last year's war. On September 17, thousands of pagers simultaneously exploded in the southern suburbs of Beirut and other Hezbollah strongholds, in most cases after the devices beeped, indicating an incoming message.

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Hezbollah said at the time the incident was the "biggest security breach" for the group in nearly a year of conflict with Israel, which largely ended in November after the two sides agreed to a ceasefire.

The blasts caused eye injuries, missing fingers or gaping holes in victim's abdomens.

The pager attack in Lebanon, and another the following day that activated weaponised walkie-talkies, killed 39 people, including two children, as well as civilians, and injured more than 3,400.

Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut 10 days later and the cross-border fighting eased only in late November, when the ceasefire came into force.

Cyber attack

On Tuesday, a cyber attack hit Sepah Bank, one of Iran's main state-owned banks, Fars news agency reported. It said the attack was "causing disruption to the institution's online services", which was expected to take hours to resolve.

The IRGC, meanwhile, said it struck a site belonging to Israel's foreign spy agency Mossad in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. In a statement aired on state television, the IRGC said an Israeli "terrorist operations planning centre" was on fire as a result.

Israel says its sweeping assault on Iran’s top military leaders, nuclear scientists, uranium enrichment sites and ballistic missile programme is necessary to prevent its adversary from getting any closer to building an atomic weapon. The strikes have killed at least 224 people and injured 1,277 since Friday.

Iran has retaliated by launching more than 370 missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel. So far, 24 people have been killed in Israel and more than 500 wounded. The Israeli military said another barrage of missiles was launched on Tuesday, with explosions heard in the north of the country.