From cyber bases to the dissemination of security news
The ins and outs of cyber activities in virtual space
From cyber bases to the dissemination of security news, the internet has become one of the essential needs for life these days. From online stores to entertainment pages and news dissemination, if you are active on X, formerly Twitter, you have certainly seen that everyone with any political view posts tweets there. From news site accounts and domestic accounts to personal pages belonging to dissidents and government supporters.
So far, everything is natural, but the story becomes strange when there are accounts that support the Islamic Republic and a specific movement, like the Stability Front, and post harsh tweets. Most of these tweets are in full support and praise of the government. A significant portion of these accounts operate with fake identities, and even the profile picture does not belong to them.
The story becomes frightening when these accounts are led by cyber bases and have considerable funding behind them. The main activity of these base accounts is forming Twitter teams, such that a group is formed on Telegram or one of the Iranian messengers like Eitaa, and people who align with them are added to that group.
The way these individuals become acquainted with these cyber teams is such that several accounts send a single tweet for joining the group, and accounts interested in joining send a message to the account owner and then join the group. Now it’s time to exploit the teams that have been created. They send their tweets in these groups, and all group members, even without reading the tweet, retweet, like, and comment on it.
Activity on Twitter is only part of the activities of cyber bases. For example, there are many channels named Jihad Tabyin on the Eitaa messenger and even Telegram that regularly produce content and attract new people. Cyber bases even have media at their disposal. On Telegram, channels like Baseemchi Media, Secret Online, Revolution Radar, and others are among the channels belonging to these bases.
A notable point is that sometimes these channels publish news and photos that are only available to security agencies. For example, minutes after the arrest of Mehdi Yarahi, a Telegram channel named Ayon published photos of the moment this pop singer was arrested. The publication of these photos sparked many reactions, to the extent that the head of the judiciary, without directly referring to this event, said that publishing photos of the moment of arrest without the judge’s permission is against the law.
The stranger point is that almost two weeks after the publication of these photos, the Ayon Telegram channel was permanently closed. It is almost never known to which base these channels are affiliated, but their behavioral pattern is consistent. For instance, they are very radical and demand harsh treatment of all protesters and do not tolerate any criticism.
Fabricating cases is another of their common behaviors. For example, they publish a tweet from a journalist inside the country and, without evidence or proof, accuse that person of espionage, and no action is taken against them by the judiciary and security agencies.
In conclusion, we must say that users should be extremely cautious of cyber activities because they can easily spread fake news and deceive the audience due to the power they have in virtual space.