Iran FX Site Shuts as Cyber Attacks Jump Amid Central Bank Spat
(Bloomberg) -- Administrators of Iran’s most popular website for tracking the rial’s open-market exchange rate said they took it offline due to cyber attacks and security concerns after criticism from the head of the country’s central bank.
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Bonbast.com suffered “severe” distributed denial-of-service attacks following the comments by Central Bank Governor Mohammad Reza Farzin, a representative for the website told Bloomberg in an emailed statement late Wednesday. So-called DDoS attacks involve overloading a target with traffic in order to make it unavailable to users.
“Due to this, as well as the security risks for our families and colleagues in Iran, we have decided to take the website offline,” the representative added, declining to identify themselves or say where they are based.
The shutdown removes a key source of data for FX traders and citizens alike in Iran, where the government sets multiple official exchange rates distinct from the open-market price. It comes as the rial posts consecutive record lows against the US dollar amid concerns about the incoming Donald Trump presidency and a spiraling energy crisis.
The currency depreciated heavily from September last year, according to Bonbast data when the website was still functioning. Analysts attributed that to Iran and its proxy militias such as Hezbollah being weakened by conflicts with Israel and to extensive US and Western sanctions hurting the economy. Lower oil prices probably also played a part by reducing the OPEC member’s foreign-exchange earnings.
Last week Farzin, the governor, said Bonbast gives an “unrealistic signal” to the market each morning using servers in the US, according to the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency. The Bonbast representative declined to respond to Farzin’s statement.
--With assistance from Golnar Motevalli.
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