Iranian govt sites hacked by Anonymous amid protests following death of Mahsa Amini

Anonymous hacker collective have claimed to be behind attacks on several websites affiliated with the Iranian government amid protests following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

Several websites, including for the central bank and the national government portal and state-owned media sites, have been intermittently unreachable.

Some hacktivist accounts have claimed to have conducted destructive attacks on these government websites, including deleting databases associated with the site for the government spokesperson, although no evidence has been provided for those claims.

Amini — who was Kurdish and also went by her Kurdish name Jhina Amini — died last Friday while in the custody of the Islamic Republic’s morality police after being detained for what the authorities described as an improper hijab.

Although the authorities report that police did not physically attack Amini while she was in custody — instead stating she had a heart attack and died in a hospital — her family have questioned this narrative, saying she had no history of heart problems and had bruises on her legs.

Her death has prompted international and domestic outrage.

Iran’s ICT minister has said that internet disruptions are possible due to the “national security” implications of the unrest.

Iranian government authorities have not issued a statement about the hacktivist attacks.

The other day, Starbucks reported its customer database was breached online, with local media reporting that 200,000 individual's information was stolen.