Iran and Russia hit with attack leaving US flag on screens

Unidentified hackers have attacked networks in Iran, Russia and several other countries. The attack disabled equipment of ISPs and data centres, and displayed a US flag on the user screens along with the warning “Don’t Mess With Our Elections.” In a statement to Motherboard, the attackers said they were “tired of attacks from government-backed hackers on the United States and other countries.” The hackers misused Cisco Smart Install (SMI) Client and, according to a Kaspersky lab report, targeted mostly the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet,a s well as switches in Iran. Iran’s IT Minister stated for the state television that the attack mostly affected Europe, India, and the US, while China was also hit; another official confirmed that no data was lost.