Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s cell phone was reportedly “recently” bugged by an unknown party, the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency said on Monday.
ISNA’s report, carried by Al Jazeera, cited Brig.-Gen. Gholam Reza Jalali, who said the phone would be replaced with a more secure device.
The Al Jazeera report also said Iran neutralized a new version of the Stuxnet virus, a computer virus reportedly created by the United States and Israel.
“Recently we discovered a new generation of Stuxnet, which consisted of several parts... and was trying to enter our systems,” Jalali was quoted by ISNA as saying.
The virus is thought to have crippled Iran’s quest for nuclear capabilities in 2010, hacking thousands of centrifuges belonging to the program.
Jalali did not provide any details of who was behind the bugging or if any information was taken, but Iranian officials have ramped up their rhetoric against the United States with new sanctions looming on November 5.
“A year ago no one would have believed... that Europe would stand with Iran and against America,” Rouhani said on Sunday.
“Russia, China, India, the European Union, and some African and Latin American countries are our friends. We have to work with them and attract investments,” he added.