Cyberspace chief says Iran used one tool to disable Starlink

Iran used one of its technologies to disable Starlink during unrest last winter and has other methods it has yet to deploy, the secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace said on October 5.

Mohammad Amin Aghamiri, who also heads the National Cyberspace Center, said the disruption was controlled and took place over a period chosen by Iranian authorities. He did not provide technical details establishing the method, duration or number of terminals affected in the reported remarks.

The claim concerns SpaceX’s satellite internet service, which uses satellites in low Earth orbit to provide broadband. Aghamiri’s assertion that Iran could interrupt that connection comes as officials debate the growing use of satellite internet alongside restrictions on domestic networks.

Speaking at the third conference bringing together online platforms and FATA, Iran’s cyber police, Aghamiri dismissed statements by Israel’s prime minister about introducing Starlink to Iran as “selling dreams.” He said Iran already possessed technology to put the service out of action.

He referred to the unrest in the Iranian calendar month of Dey 1404, spanning late December 2025 and January 2026, as a “coup.” He said Western websites had described Iran as the first country to disable Starlink in a controlled way during a period of its choosing. That description was his characterization of their reporting.

Aghamiri also said other technologies for disabling Starlink were available in Iran but had not been used.

He added that Starlink or other communications infrastructure would be treated differently if used as an instrument of war. In those circumstances, he said, Iran could consider infrastructure supporting military operations a “legitimate military target.”

The remarks follow a senior communications official’s criticism of internet filtering in September. Behzad Akbari, deputy communications minister and head of the Telecommunication Infrastructure Company, said filtering had become counterproductive. He also suggested some traffic missing from domestic networks might be passing through Starlink, explicitly describing that explanation as a guess.

One hour to report a critical cyber incident

At the same conference, FATA chief Vahid Majid announced a framework setting deadlines for online businesses to make an initial notification after a cyber incident. The deadlines depend on its severity:

At higher severity levels, notification would extend beyond internal organizational communications to include the media and responsible authorities, he said. His account did not specify an implementation date for the framework.

Majid also described a system for classifying online businesses by their importance, using criteria including daily transaction volumes, user numbers and the amount of data they hold.

He said 130 businesses had been placed in the highest category, with 91% of those operating in Greater Tehran.

Turning to cybercrime, Majid said fraud accounted for 39% of cybercrimes in Iran. Unauthorized online withdrawals, previously the largest category, had fallen to second place following measures including the introduction of one-time passwords, he said.

Warning against repeating foreign currency prices

Hossein Rahimi, head of the economic security police within Iran’s national police force, urged domestic platforms and websites to stop republishing or applying exchange rates quoted by some foreign sources.

He criticized websites and channels abroad whose rates were repeated by domestic sources, alleging that their affiliations were apparent without identifying them in the reported remarks.

Rahimi argued that price increases on domestic platforms put pressure on buyers and businesses and could ultimately reduce demand, damaging business activity.

He also said security and economic activity were inseparable, with security providing the conditions for investment. Responsibility for countering what he called an “economic war” extended beyond the government and armed forces to economic actors, he said.