DOJ says it shut down websites that spread Iranian propaganda, threatened dissidents and took credit for hacks

The Justice Department says it has shuttered four websites that were allegedly used by Iranian government-linked groups to post hacked information and threaten regime critics.

The Justice Department says it has shuttered four websites that were allegedly used by Iranian government-linked groups to post hacked information and threaten regime critics.

The move comes amid fears that the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran could expand into cyberattacks. A news agency linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards has threatened American tech companies that they could be targets, and one of the Iran-linked groups targeted by the Justice Department appeared to take credit for a hack on a Michigan medical technology company last week. 

Meanwhile, U.S. military officials have said cyber operations helped to degrade Iran's communications in the early hours of the war.

The websites that were shut down by the Justice Department had names that corresponded to three different alleged hacking groups: Handala, Homeland Justice and Karma Below. In court papers, the FBI said all three groups are run by Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and they use similar tactics, including "custom-built malware."

The Justice Department says the four sites were used for Iranian government-sponsored "hacking and transnational repression schemes," and for "attempted psychological operations targeting adversaries of the regime."