Iran is braced for any attempt by the US to disconnect it from the internet amid the worsening diplomatic conflict between the two countries, Tasnim news agency quoted the chief of Iran’s National Passive Defense Organization (NPDO) as saying on October 21.

The often outspoken Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali, who heads the NPDO, an organisation that serves as a subdivision of the Joint Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, said his expert personnel were “ready to deal with any cyber threat, including a possible internet outage”.

The US is presently using a heavy sanctions-led economic attack on Iran in an attempt at forcing Tehran into negotiations on its role in Middle East affairs. Jalali also reportedly warned that  US cyberattacks could cause the country to decide to disconnect itself from the internet to prevent Washington from accessing classified online materials in Iran.

The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, National Cyberspace Centre and all mobile phone service and internet operators were also making necessary preparations to guard against any attack on Iran’s internet, he added, saying the US possesses the necessary tools to take down the country’s worldwide web access.

Iran launched its national intranet in 2016 after months of delays due to the sheer scale of the project. Accordingly, it costs less to access sites hosted inside Iran than those accessed through the worldwide web. Both types of sites can be accessed through a standard browser.

The Islamic Republic was slow to adopt the internet, but in recent years it upgraded to 4G mobile telephone services, which boosted internet provision sales and e-commerce ventures. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the country took measures to secure its internal networks with the so-called National Information Network (NIN), which runs in parallel to regular internet lines.

The so-called Halal Internet followed IT developments in the country including the Content Delivery Network (CDN), set up to be the first service for secure internet delivery in Iran.