Page 48 - IRANRptNov20

9.1.5​ Tourism sector news
Tehran is facing the brunt of the third wave of the virus
On October 14, Iran announced a travel ban to and from five major cities, including the capital of Tehran and the holy northern city of Mashhad, to prevent the spread of the virus. ​Kianoush Jahanpour, a Health Ministry spokesman, told state TV that the travel ban was targeted at reducing risks ahead of a religious holiday on October 17. Iran’s weekend runs across Thursday and Friday.
Tehran is still facing the brunt of the third wave of the virus. Schools, mosques, shops, restaurants and other public institutions in the capital closed for a week on October 3 and the governor on October 9 extended the closure for another week.
Masks, which had been compulsory in public indoors, must be worn anywhere in public in Tehran from October 10.
Iran’s Health Ministry registered 195 deaths of patients with coronavirus on October 10, taking the official death toll to 28,293. There were 3,875 new cases, bringing the total to 496,253. State television said the virus had now killed nearly 1,700 people in one week.
9.1.6 ​TMT sector news
Microsoft says “Iranian actor” aiming cyberattacks at likely Munich Security Conference and Think 20 Summit participants
CEO of “Iran’s YouTube” sentenced to 10 years for “encouraging corruption” in society
Microsoft Corp said on October 29 that it has detected and attempted to stop a series of cyberattacks from Phosphorus, which it described as an “Iranian actor”.
The attacks aimed to target over 100 high-profile individuals including “potential attendees of the upcoming Munich Security Conference and the Think 20 (T20) Summit in Saudi Arabia", Microsoft said in a blog.
It said it believed Phosphorus was engaging in these cyberattacks for intelligence collection purposes.
There is no doubt that Iran has highly developed cyberattack capabilities, while it is also well documented that it suffers regular attacks from foes such as Israel and the US. However, amid the information war surrounding the ongoing US presidential election campaign—with the Republicans attempting to maximise the portrayal of Iran as a dangerous enemy of the US and the Democrats taking the position that an attempt should be made to engage Tehran in new talks on relations—there has been a proliferation of hacking and cyberattack allegations aimed at Iran, with many of the claims likely to be spurious.
The Atlantic Council think tank on October 28 carried a ​comment piece​ that pointed out that “voting early” was a simple and effective way to avoid potential covert cyber operations against the November 3 election in the US.
The founder and manager of Iran’s main video-sharing platform, sometimes dubbed “Iran's YouTube”, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for “encouraging corruption” in society.​ The charge stemmed from a video posted by a user on the service, Aparat.com, last year.
In the video, children were asked whether they knew how they were born, according to Iranian media.
Aparat CEO Mohammad Javad Shakuri Moghadam was sentenced in mid-October by Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court presided over by judge Mohammad Moghiseh, who is known for handing down harsh sentences, but it was only publicly announced on October 25. The sentence can be appealed. Shakuri Moghadam was two years ago awarded a government medal of honour as a top Iranian entrepreneur.
48​ IRAN Country Report November 2020 www.intellinews.com