Better not say anything about Iran, or your life can be made miserable.
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast
Shane Harris
An Iranian Speaks Out—And Gets Hacked
Harassing emails. Incessant Skype calls. Facebook impersonations. When Roya Hakakian’s dissident views were published in Farsi, she was targeted by an online dirty tricks campaign.
In hindsight, outspoken Iranian writer Roya Hakakian was an ideal target for hackers—especially ones who seemed to support the regime in Tehran. What’s curious is why it took them so long to go after her.
The Tehran-born Hakakian has spent 30 years living in the United States, writing books and op-eds critical of the regime in her native country, and protesting the mullahs who rule there. She even helped found an organization that documents human rights abuses of Iranians—including gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender citizens. But Hakakian had never inspired the government’s ire quite like she may have last February.
That month, a Persian-language Website called Tavaana ran a glowing profile of Hakakian—literally glowing. In a lush photograph accompanying the piece, she actually appeared to be emanating light. The story recounted the highlights of Hakakian’s career, which includes a Guggenheim fellowship and two books. The most recent: 2011’s Assassins of the Turquoise Palace, about the notorious assassination of Iranian-Kurdish opposition leaders at a Greek restaurant in Berlin in 1992. Tavaana called Hakakian a “lady [who] deserves praise.” Though, she clarified sheepishly during a recent interview, the headline’s literal translation was a woman who “deserves worship.”
Someone—or some group—had a very different view of Hakakian. To them, the lady who deserves worship needed to be taken down a notch.
For the next two months, Hakakian experienced a campaign of cyber harassment and spying that shows the lengths to which determined intruders will go both to spy on their targets, and to intimidate them. While she found no definitive proof that Iran was to blame, the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming. Hakakian’s case provides an up-close look at the tradecraft of Iranian hackers, whom U.S. intelligence officials say are among the world’s best, and are only getting better and more brazen.
Continue reading at:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2
Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast
Shane Harris
An Iranian Speaks Out—And Gets Hacked
Harassing emails. Incessant Skype calls. Facebook impersonations. When Roya Hakakian’s dissident views were published in Farsi, she was targeted by an online dirty tricks campaign.
In hindsight, outspoken Iranian writer Roya Hakakian was an ideal target for hackers—especially ones who seemed to support the regime in Tehran. What’s curious is why it took them so long to go after her.
The Tehran-born Hakakian has spent 30 years living in the United States, writing books and op-eds critical of the regime in her native country, and protesting the mullahs who rule there. She even helped found an organization that documents human rights abuses of Iranians—including gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender citizens. But Hakakian had never inspired the government’s ire quite like she may have last February.
That month, a Persian-language Website called Tavaana ran a glowing profile of Hakakian—literally glowing. In a lush photograph accompanying the piece, she actually appeared to be emanating light. The story recounted the highlights of Hakakian’s career, which includes a Guggenheim fellowship and two books. The most recent: 2011’s Assassins of the Turquoise Palace, about the notorious assassination of Iranian-Kurdish opposition leaders at a Greek restaurant in Berlin in 1992. Tavaana called Hakakian a “lady [who] deserves praise.” Though, she clarified sheepishly during a recent interview, the headline’s literal translation was a woman who “deserves worship.”
Someone—or some group—had a very different view of Hakakian. To them, the lady who deserves worship needed to be taken down a notch.
For the next two months, Hakakian experienced a campaign of cyber harassment and spying that shows the lengths to which determined intruders will go both to spy on their targets, and to intimidate them. While she found no definitive proof that Iran was to blame, the circumstantial evidence is overwhelming. Hakakian’s case provides an up-close look at the tradecraft of Iranian hackers, whom U.S. intelligence officials say are among the world’s best, and are only getting better and more brazen.
Continue reading at:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2
