The U.S. Justice Department said an Iranian security ministry operates the fake activist persona known as Handala, which claimed responsibility for the destructive hack targeting medical tech giant Stryker.
The FBI and the Justice Department took down two websites linked to the pro-Iranian hacktivist group Handala, which last week hacked medical tech giant Stryker.
The U.S. cybersecurity agency urged companies to prevent access to systems used for remotely managing their fleets of employee devices after hackers broke into a major U.S. medical tech giant and remotely wiped thousands of phones and computers.
The hack, which brought ongoing widespread disruption to the company’s operations, is thought to be the first major cyberattack in the United States in response to the Trump administration’s war in Iran.
The hacktivist group claimed the attack was in retaliation for a U.S. strike on a Tehran school that killed more than 175 people, most of them children.
A hacktivist group with links to Iran’s intelligence agencies is claiming responsibility for a data-wiping attack against Stryker, a global medical technology company based in Michigan. News reports out of Ireland, Stryker’s largest hub outside of the United States, said the company sent home more than 5,000 workers there today. Meanwhile, a voicemail message at Stryker’s main U.S. headquarters says the company is currently experiencing a building emergency.