Iran moved to boost its cyber capabilities in 2011 after the Stuxnet computer virus destroyed thousands of centrifuges involved in its nuclear program.

Stuxnet is widely believed to be an American and Israeli creation, though Israel did not admit it. A 2012 report said that then-US President Barack Obama ordered the Stuxnet virus attack on Iran as part of a wave of cyber sabotage and espionage against the Islamic Republic.

In addition, Iran regularly says it captured spies, and sometimes those are sentenced to death. In August, the Islamic Republic arrested dozens of spies working for state bodies, many of them dual nationals.

Earlier this month, a court in Iran sentenced a dual national man to eight and a half years in prison after finding him guilty of infiltration of important governmental bodies.