Iran says cyberattack closes gas stations across country

A cyberattack crippled gas stations across Iran on Tuesday, leaving angry motorists stranded in long lines. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which rendered useless the government-issued electronic cards that many Iranians use to buy subsidized fuel at the pump.

It bore similarities to another attack months earlier that seemed to directly challenge Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the country’s economy buckles under American sanctions. Those economic problems worsen as the U.S. and Iran have yet to jointly re-enter Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers.

semiofficial ISNA news agency, which first called the incident a cyberattack, said it saw those trying to buy fuel with a Government-issued card through the machines instead receive a message reading “cyberattack 64411.”