Sweden Uncovers Iran Hacked SMS Service to Send Messages on Koran Burnings

(Bloomberg) — Sweden said it uncovered an Iranian hacking operation to send text messages in a bid to deepen divisions in the Nordic country.

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Swedish prosecutors concluded Iran was behind 15,000 text messages sent on Aug. 1, 2023, according to a statement on Tuesday. The messages sought to sway recipients to exact revenge on people burning Islam’s holy book after a number of such incidents in Sweden, according to the prosecutor. Part of the text read “those who insulted the Koran must pay,” according to numerous reports in local media.

While investigators were able to identify the Iranian hackers, Sweden dropped the probe as it has no jurisdiction to charge them in Iran and is unable to bring them to Sweden to face trial. Several calls and an email seeking comment from Iran’s embassy in Stockholm went unanswered during regular business hours.

The cyber attack came at a tense time. Sweden’s application to join defense alliance NATO was in the balance following a number of public Koran burnings that sparked outrage in parts of the Muslim world, and angered Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who held the keys to Sweden’s accession to the bloc. In the end, Erdogan dropped his opposition and Sweden joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in March.

The case is an example of what western authorities believe to be Iranian covert operations in Europe and comes after it was revealed earlier this month that a couple arrested in France are suspected of being involved in an Iranian plot to kill Jews in the country.

“The investigation shows that the Iranian state, through the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, hacked a Swedish company that operates a major text-messaging service,” senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said in a statement. “The purpose was to increase tensions and fuel existing conflicts between different groups in society.”

Two weeks after the messages were sent, Sweden raised its terror threat level to four on a five-point scale, and in October that year, two Swedish football fans were murdered in a terrorist attack Brussels.

(Updates with attempt to seek comment from Iran’s authorities in third paragraph.)