Iranian media report that two reformist websites have been hacked into by the so-called Hezbollah Cyber Army.
The two targeted websites belong to the Association of Combatant Clerics, a reformist organization under the leadership of former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, and the Baran Foundation, another organization linked to Khatami.
An attempt to access these websites will link users directly to the website of the Hezbollah Cyber Army. The so-called Hezbollah Cyber Army warns that it will not allow people to damage Iran’s Islamic values by spreading "childish" ideas online.
Mohammad Khatami and other Iranian reformist figures have been sidelined for the past two years, ever since the mass protests against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed election victory in 2009. Reformists are accused of playing into the hands of the Islamic Republic’s enemies and harming the system.
Khatami has announced that reformists will not participate in the coming parliamentary elections without the release of all political prisoners, including the opposition leaders under house arrest, and without guarantees that the elections will be free and transparent.
Since none of these conditions has been met, several reformist groups have boycotted the elections.
In 2009, Defense Tech, a U.S. military and security organization, reported that the Iran’s Cyber Army is an offshoot of the Revolutionary Guards of Iran and one of the five most powerful cyber forces in the world.
Iranian security and military forces treat the cyber-presence of opposition groups as a direct threat to the Islamic Republic regime.
