Brigadier-General Mohammadreza Yazdi, who commands Iran's Revolutionary Guards Mohammad Rasululah Division, on Tuesday said his operation has 144 active cyber-battalions. Yazdi said their tasks include “skill-building and knowledge-building,” as well as “responding to attempts at creating [political and religious] controversies and the lies of hostile [forces]....”

On October 21, the United States Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Chris Wray said Washington had evidence of Iran and Russia obtaining US voter registration data as part of attempts to influence the November presidential election.

Iran dismissed the allegations. But while rumors abound over hacking, it is widely assumed that Iran monitors Persian-language social media and targets accounts of opposition figures or media, conveying hostile comments and messages.

In January 2018, Brigadier-General Mohammad-Hossein Sepehr, Coordination Deputy of the Supreme Leader’s Representative in the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), claimed Iran was “the fourth biggest cyber-power among the world’s cyber armies” and on September 7, 2019, Brigadier-General Gholamreza Soleimani, Commander of the Basij militia, said it had 1,000 cyber-battalions across Iran.

The Israel-based think tank, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), claimed in 2016 said that Iran was “one of the best and most advanced nations” in cyber warfare” and was able to “launch a cyber-attack against critical infrastructures in the United States and its allies, including energy infrastructures, financial institutions, transportation systems, and others.”  Iran was unable, however, in 2009 and 2010 to stop the Stuxnet worm hampering its Natanz atomic facility.

In January 2011, attacks on several Iranian news websites was attributed to IRGC-affiliated hackers. The targeted websites - including Alef, Ayandeh, Fararu and Khabar Online - all operated with the permission of the Islamic Guidance Ministry but were critical of the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Cyber-battalions also monitor social media. In March 2014 the IRGC Center for Organized Cyber-Crimes announced it had carried out a mission dubbed ‘Spider’ to identify two influencers on Facebook who had created accounts to spread “immoral content” and “insults against Shia sanctities.”

Iran has been occasionally implicated in hacking attempts abroad but has usually denied involvement, even though hackers sometimes leave a visiting card as ‘Cyber Army’ on defaced websites.