A cyberattack carried out by hackers linked to the Iranian regime forced a UK energy facility to shut down for four days last month.
The incident is believed to be the first time Iranian-affiliated hackers have successfully infiltrated and shut down a UK energy facility.
The targeted site is understood to be a “small scale energy generator” and has been described as a “power plant”, according to the Telegraph.
Government officials declined to confirm which site was affected, citing national security concerns as the reason for withholding the information.
The government responded to the attack by writing to businesses and issuing advice directly to power company chief executives across the country.
Authorities confirmed the site is not considered critical infrastructure, and the attack had no impact on the country’s wider power supply or energy generation.
The cyberattack reportedly coincided with a series of coordinated attacks on US water infrastructure that affected 12 American states simultaneously.
In March, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ, raised concerns about cyber security threats from Iranian-linked hackers following the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
The NCSC warned that UK organisations “should prepare to respond to the risk of collateral impacts in the UK from Iran-linked hacktivists.”
The agency further stated that “Iranian state and Iran-linked cyber actors almost certainly currently maintain at least some capability to conduct cyber activity.”
In a speech in June, NCSC chief executive Richard Horne said the organisation had successfully dealt with over 200 cyberattacks affecting the UK’s critical infrastructure in the year until May.
Horne noted that three quarters of those attacks were linked to hostile states, underscoring the growing threat facing UK infrastructure from foreign actors.
Earlier this year, Horne warned that the most significant cyberattacks in the UK have been carried out by hostile states including Iran, China, and Russia.