Iran’s security service carried out a special cyber operation against targets in Sweden last year, the country’s prosecutor and security services revealed on Tuesday (24 September).
The special operation was carried out in August last year as hackers hijacked an SMS service and sent 15,000 messages urging Swedes to “take revenge” on people who had burned Qurans in the country.
“We have managed to link it to the Revolutionary Guard”, said Fredrik Hallström, head of operations at the Swedish Security Service, on Tuesday.
The revelations come a day after outgoing European Council President Charles Michel met with Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, to discuss the state of EU-Iran relations, which one EU official described as “at its lowest point ever.”
“The government is informed and is in contact with the responsible authorities”, said Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer, adding that it was very serious that a state was behind the attack.
Last year, several anti-Islam activists burned Qurans in public, leading to an outbreak of anti-Swedish reactions in the Muslim world and complicating Sweden’s NATO accession process.
In the wake of these tensions, Swedish media reported in August last year that people across the country had received text messages from a group calling itself the Anzu team, urging them to take revenge on Quran burners.
Since the incident, Swedish security services have been looking into who was behind the data breach, but the investigation is now closed as it is impossible to prosecute or extradite anyone to Sweden in this case.
“The preliminary investigation shows that it was the Iranian state via the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC, that carried out a data breach at a Swedish company that runs a major SMS service,” said senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist in a press release.
“Since the actors are acting on behalf of a foreign power, in this case, Iran, our assessment is that the conditions for prosecution abroad or extradition to Sweden are lacking for the persons suspected of being behind the intrusion,” Ljungqvist added.
Attempt in destabilisation
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the purpose of the operation was to influence public opinion in Sweden.
“The aim was to aggravate the situation further and increase the conflict between different groups in our society”, Ljungqvist said.
Hallström also noted how difficult it was to know exactly what Iran’s aim was with the attack, adding that it was possible to “imagine” that it was to increase the threat to Sweden.
“Sweden was already in a rather tense situation with the Koran burnings. We were in a NATO process that also put us in a tense situation”, he said.
Hallström also pointed out that an inside could not be ruled out, although this scenario remains “unlikely”.
According to the Swedish Security Service’s 2024 threat assessment, Iran is one of the main threats facing the country, Russia, and China.
[Edited by Daniel Eck]
