Science and Technology

VOA – Iran is acknowledging for the first time that it has an open case before its Revolutionary Court concerning the 2007 disappearance of a former FBI agent on an authorized CIA mission to the country, renewing questions over what happened to him. In a filing to the United Nations, Iran said the case over Robert Levinson was “on going,” …

AP – Ten years ago while flanked by the leaders of Britain and France, then-President Barack Obama revealed to the world that Iran had built a “covert uranium enrichment facility” amid tensions with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program. A decade later, Iran’s Fordo facility is back in the news as Iran prepared Wednesday to inject uranium gas into …

PayvandNews – Iranian President Hassan Rohani has opened a first major startup accelerator in the county, a sign his government is intent on using the domestic know-how to compensate for the technological losses caused by the American sanctions. Rohani on Tuesday opened the Azadi Innovation Factory (AIF) in a location west of the capital Tehran where he spent hours talking to heads …

RFL/RE – Top U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials have joined together to warn Americans about attempts by Russia, Iran, and other foreign “adversaries” to interfere with next year’s presidential election.“Our adversaries want to undermine our democratic institutions, influence public sentiment, and affect government policies,” the leaders of President Donald Trump’s administration on security matters said in a joint statement released on …

Radiofarda – Twitter has blocked the account of Al-Manar TV, belonging to Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah, saying it has not followed its rules. Al-Manar has called the blocking a “political” act. Currently, the page is completely blank. Twitter has also blocked an account belonging to Yemen’s Houthis, called “The Central Warfare Channel”. In August 2018, Facebook and Twitter closed hundreds of Iran-connected accounts, …

Radiofarda – Head of the Islamic Republic Civil Defense Organization says the United States has declared a cyberwar against Iran. Speaking before the sermons at the Friday Prayer ceremony in Tehran, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali reiterated that the U.S. has “officially declared cyberwar” against the Islamic Republic. “In the infrastructural layer of the cyberwar,” …

Radiofarda – Facebook has announced a series of new measures that are designed to protect the 2020 U.S. elections. The measures were announced today and they included the labeling of state controlled media, protecting accounts of 2020 presidential candidates and introducing a ban on advertising of posts that suggest “voting is useless.” Facebook claims to have dismantled three networks of Pages and Groups on …

Radiozamaneh – *This is the second part of the article Curious Case of  Persian Wikipedia.  In recent weeks, a lively debate started in the Iranian diaspora about the accuracy of Wikipedia articles and whether the Iranian state was using measures to impose censorship on its content through the volunteer writers. The conversation began in Social Media after a report on Open Democracy by …

RFL/RE – British and U.S. intelligence agencies say Russian hackers hijacked Iran-based cyberspy groups to attack dozens of countries and organizations while pretending to be Iranian.The details of the operation were revealed in an October 21 statement accompanying a joint advisory by Britain’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) and the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).The Russian hacking group known as Turla “acquired Iranian tools …

Radiozamaneh – On September 11, an investigative report on Open Democracy by Sina Zekavat raised serious concerns in the Iranian community. The article claimed that the Iranian state’s intelligence apparatus might be using Wikipedia pages to exert their influence and censor content. Several questions were brought up about the cooperation between Persian Wikipedia editors who are volunteers and Iranian officials. The Wikimedia …