{"id":230977,"date":"2020-12-12T15:41:29","date_gmt":"2020-12-12T15:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=230977"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:30:20","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:30:20","slug":"treadstone-71-report-on-irans-cyberterrorism-against-mek-confirms-regimes-fear-of-its-viable-alternative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/terrorism-a-fundamentalism\/treadstone-71-report-on-irans-cyberterrorism-against-mek-confirms-regimes-fear-of-its-viable-alternative\/","title":{"rendered":"Treadstone 71 Report on Iran\u2019s Cyberterrorism Against MEK Confirms Regime\u2019s Fear of Its Viable Alternative"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ashraf-3, home of the MEK members<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new comprehensive report by Treadstone 71, a cybersecurity company, on Iran\u2019s disinformation campaign mainly against Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI<\/a>) and the main opposition group, the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK<\/a>) underlines the mullahs\u2019 fear and concern of their organized opposition.<\/p>\n

The case study in the Treadstone 71 report<\/a> is about the regime\u2019s cyber mobilization in July 2020, simultaneous with the Iranian Resistance\u2019s annual \u201cFree Iran\u201d conference<\/a>, this time held online due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, over 30,000 locations were connected to Ashraf 3<\/a>, MEK\u2019s compound in Albania. The keynote speaker of this event was Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, and the regime\u2019s \u201cprimary hashtag\u2026 targeted Maryam Rajavi<\/a>,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n

The regime\u2019s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC<\/a>) and Basij cyber teams led this campaign. Many of these accounts pretended to be dissidents or the regime\u2019s critics, but they were operating from Iran and were IRGC fake accounts.<\/p>\n

According to the report, these accounts, \u201cmost with high followership, portrayed themselves as \u2018monarchist,\u2019 \u2018reformist,\u2019 or \u2018regime change advocates\u2019 on various social media platforms. A significant feature of these accounts is young women’s personas disguising themselves while attracting and luring unsuspecting users for messaging expansion and potential collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe IRGC used a core team of proxy accounts, likely Basiji cyber teams, to trigger the messaging and lead the campaign. They developed accounts with large followership, usually using female personas that present themselves as critics of the government but more critical of the MEK,\u201d the report adds.<\/p>\n

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Three day Free Iran Global Summit 2020 Largest virtual gathering the world<\/div><\/div>
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