ALBAWABA - Sweden claims that Iran was behind thousands of text messages sent to citizens in the Scandinavian country demanding vengeance for the 2023 burning of the Quran.
Authorities in Stockholm say that Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard committed "a data breach" and sent "some 15,000 text messages in Swedish" during a series of public Quran burnings.
According to senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist, a preliminary investigation by Sweden's SAPO domestic security agency revealed that "it was the Iranian state via the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC, that carried out a data breach at a Swedish company that runs a major SMS service".
In August 2023, Swedish media reported that a huge number of people in Sweden had received text messages in Swedish asking for retribution against those who were burning the Quran, according to Ljungqvist, who added that the texts were sent by "a group calling itself the Anzu team".
"Foreign powers exploit vulnerabilities to further their agendas. We see that they are now acting more aggressively and this is a development that is likely to intensify. It is important that all parts of society review their security," said Fredrik Hallstroem, head of operations at the Swedish Security Service, quoted in Ljungqvist's statement.
