Cyber Fraud Against Customers of Eight Iranian Banks; Expert: ‘Siyaanah Plan Aims at Military Control Over Country’s Internet’
The social deputy of FATA, the information production and exchange space unit of the Islamic Republic’s police force, says fake software from eight Iranian banks has been removed from Google Play.
Mahdi Saarmifar, a science and technology journalist, in an interview with Voice of America, says that Islamic Republic officials should actually be pursuing the goal of preventing fraud when talking about “Siyaanah,” but that is not the case, and “we see that in the Siyaanah plan they are seeking military control over the country’s internet.”
According to ISNA’s report on Monday, Aban 24, Ramin Pashayee, the social deputy of the FATA police, said this latest move by “cybercriminals” to exploit citizens’ bank accounts at banks including “Saderat, Agriculture, Sepah, and five other banks” was detected by this police unit through “public reports.”
He recommended that citizens use “domestic app stores” for “installing financial and banking software” and enter the bank’s web address “completely” when installing it.
Mahdi Saarmifar, a journalist and expert in science and technology, in an interview with the Persian service of Voice of America, says that unfortunately there are no accurate statistics on the extent of this type of internet theft, as Iranian authorities do not report it correctly.
Saarmifar, noting that Iran does not have serious interactions with companies like Google, explains that this is due to a specific situation created by the Islamic Republic for the Iranian people. If the situation were normal, in an ordinary country, matters related to people’s personal security would have similar channels with the world for verification, and would ensure the security of Iranian users through normal methods like other countries in the world.
According to this technology expert, the current conditions have resulted in “anyone being able to download a bank logo and create an app and place it on Google Play Store, and Google has no way to verify whether it is real or fake, therefore these apps are published and mislead people.”
He adds: “FATA police tell people to use domestic similar services instead of security tools like Google Play Store so that authorities can prevent fraud.”
Mr. Saarmifar called the Iranian people a “vulnerable group” who face the danger of authorities accessing “their photo gallery or other mobile information” with domestic apps, and “if they go to foreign apps like Google Play Store they face fraud.”
Saarmifar emphasizes that “in fact, the one who is harmed and receives no protection is the Iranian user.”
However, he considers using tools like Google Play Store a more secure method for users compared to Iranian domestic services, provided they observe verification methods such as carefully examining the appearance of apps, checking the developer company, reading the information under the store, and reading other users’ comments to ensure they are not fake.
Source: Voice of America
