[83160] Cyberattack paralyzes banking systems in Iran: Services restored to operation

Paralyzing Cyberattack on Central Banking in Iran

The banking system in Iran suffered a significant blow this past weekend, after a cyberattack targeted the shared communications infrastructure of four central banks: Bank Melli, Bank Tejarat, Bank Saderat, and the Export Development Bank of Iran. According to reports from the Bank Coordination Council, the incident was identified on the morning of Saturday, June 23, 2026.

While state authorities insisted that it was a "limited cyberattack" that did not lead to a data leak, Iran International reported that the disruptions lasted for a long time and affected the ability of customers to perform bank transfers, use credit cards, and access digital services. Deutsche Welle in Persian noted that following the event, technical personnel were forced to activate security and safety measures that caused widespread service suspension.

After a day of uncertainty, the Informatics Services Company stated that it had succeeded in restoring basic card-based services (such as purchases, bank transfers, and withdrawals) at all four banks. Simultaneously, as part of emergency measures, transfer limits were raised to 20 billion Rials at branches, and the daily card transfer limit was set at 1.5 billion Rials per customer.

Despite official announcements regarding a return to routine, experts and technical sources expressed concern regarding the resilience of the national infrastructure. The CITNA News Agency quoted an expert who claimed that beyond the external attack, there appears to be an internal failure in the management of the "Core Banking" of those institutions. At the same time, the SNN.ir News Agency warned that the government's increased reliance on the connection between banking payment systems and other critical infrastructures, such as fuel distribution, exposes Iran to severe security and economic risks in the event of future attacks.