Iran intends to build a cyber army capable of protecting its military and government computer systems from attacks like the Stuxnet virus, a computer worm that wreaked havoc on Iran’s nuclear centrifuges last year.
Iran’s Press TV reports on the cyber force:
"The US is downsizing its army for bigger cyber defense infrastructure. So countries like Iran also have to set up and upgrade their cyber defense headquarters and even [build] a cyber army," Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali said in a Press TV interview on the last day of the first national conference on cyber defense.
Jalali said Iran is one of the first countries that have been targeted by cyber attacks over the past two years, adding, "The facilities which came under attack managed to survive, which means despite the difficulties, Iran is to a great extent immune to such attacks."
Iran launched a cyber defense headquarters some four months ago. The key task of cyber defense is to prevent computer worms or as some call it cyber weapons from breaking into or stealing data from Iran's maximum security networks, including nuclear facilities, power plants, data centers and banks.