Azerbaijan, Baku, July 6 /Trend S.Isayev, T. Jafarov/
Iran has established a security operations center (SOC) to tackle various attacks and security vulnerabilities, Mehr reported.
A security operations center (SOC) is a centralized unit in an organization that deals with security issues, on an organizational and technical level.
An SOC within a building or facility is a central location from where staff supervises the site, using data processing technology.
The center was founded by a "Pishgamane Kavir" group of IT companies of Iran.
Currently the technology in the center is in test regime, and is to be launched in full force on July 18. Fifteen people work three shifts, tweaking the system before its launch on the mentioned date.
One of the founders of the center, a head of an IT company within "Pishgamane Kavir" group, Mohammad Ali Aqeli said that this is the first of its kind security center in Iran, which aims to monitor, assess and defend networks, databases and websites.
"Every security breach or unathorized entry into the network can be assessed as vandalism and it will be treated accordingly," Aqeli said.
He added that the center will work not only to monitor vulnerabilities in bank systems, but also in insurance companies, government and military organizations, as well as private companies.
Ageli also said that the center will be able to handle and monitor around 100 networks simultaneously, adding that this figure will be increasing in the future if necessary.
Iran has been a subject of various virus attacks in recent years. In 2010, Iran's industrial and nuclear computer systems were attacked by the Stuxnet worm. The worm was a malware designed to infect computers using Siemens Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), a control system favoured by industries that manage water supplies, oil rigs and power plants.
Stuxnet was followed by Duqu, a virus designed to gather data for future cyber-attacks. Iran announced the discovery of Duqu in November 2011.
Later a a technologically sophisticated virus called "Flame" was discovered in Iran and Middle East.