SALT LAKE CITY — The state of Utah has thwarted cyberattacks originating from Iran.
The Utah Division of Technology Services confirmed to FOX 13 it saw an uptick in what was termed “surveillance traffic,” essentially a fishing expedition to see if there were holes in the state’s computer systems. The surveillance traffic originated from Iran on Sunday.
The division said it implemented counter-measures to ensure state servers and other systems were protected and nothing has happened since.
Utah DTS has long sought to protect against cyberattacks. The division sees as many as a billion attempts to penetrate government systems every single day. DTS spokeswoman Stephanie Weteling said they could not say specific numbers for security reasons, but characterized Sunday’s cyberattacks as a “noticeable increase.”
“We’d like to reassure the public that we continually monitor the state network and this is normal daily activity for us,” she said.
U.S. Homeland Security officials have warned about the potential for cyberattacks originating from Iran on government and private business systems in retaliation for the death of their general in a drone strike.
