Cybercrime in Iran doubles

Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 2 By Khalid Kazimov – Trend: Director of the Iranian Center for the Detection and Prevention of Cybercrime Ali Niknafs said that in the course of 3 years, cybercrime has doubled in the country. Niknafs who was speaking on the sidelines of a cyber-security conference in the city of Mashhad, Razavi Khorasan province, said that since cyberspace is a recent phenomenon, people committing cybercrime are mostly of young age, IRNA news agency reported Mar. 1. “The average age for cyber criminals is 16 to 17 years. The cyber-attacks that take place in the country are a good example to show that the young ones are more adept in cyberspace and that their parents have little control over them,” he noted. The official added that around 91 percent of the country’s cybercrimes are detected by security forces. Niknafs said that most of the crimes are committed with financial intent, adding that 80 percent of the cases include hacking into bank accounts. In October, Iran held cyber defense exercises in five provinces, head of the Islamic Republic’s Passive Defense Organization, Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali said. Testing the official organizations’ resistance against cyber threats was among the goals of the drill, Jalali said. In November, Iran reached a preliminary agreement with Azerbaijan on cooperation in the field of cyber security. The cooperation of the sides in this area has been recently discussed in Baku by Azerbaijani Minister of Communications and High Technologies Ali Abbasov and Iran’s Minister of Communication and Information Technology, co-chairman of the Azerbaijan-Iran intergovernmental commission on trade-economic and humanitarian cooperation Mahmoud Vaezi, the ministry said. Follow us on Twitter @TRENDNewsAgency