Iran launches cyber attack against US hours after Donald Trump's astonishing threat

The cyber attacks come as Donald Trump's deadline for Iran to re-open the Strait of Hormuz is set to expire in just hours - and after the president threatened to wipe out the country's civilisation

Iran has launched a series of cyber attacks against the US hours after Donald Trump threatened to wipe out the country's civilisation.

It comes as the US president's deadline to re-open the Strait of Hormuz is set to expire in just hours.

According to the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency "Iran-affiliated" hackers are "conducting exploitation activity" on important systems in the US.

It says sophisticated "advanced persistent threat" groups are going after internet-connected industrial systems used to run critical services.

The attackers are said to be exploiting devices such as programmable controllers - the kind used to operate factories, energy systems and other essential infrastructure - with some incidents already causing disruption and financial losses.

Officials say the hackers are manipulating data and control displays to interfere with how systems function, raising concerns about the potential impact on vital services. US organisations have been urged to review their networks "to reduce the risk of compromise".

The agency had previously flagged similar activity by CyberAv3ngers - a group affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Cyber Electronic Command (CEC).

"Iran-affiliated advanced persistent threat (APT) actors are conducting exploitation activity targeting internet-facing operational technology (OT) devices, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs) manufactured by Rockwell Automation/Allen-Bradley," the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a statement.

"This activity has led to PLC disruptions across several U.S. critical infrastructure sectors through malicious interactions with the project file and manipulation of data on human machine interface (HMI) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) displays, resulting in operational disruption and financial loss.

"U.S. organizations should urgently review the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) and indicators of compromise (IOCs) in this advisory for indications of current or historical activity on their networks, and apply the recommendations listed in the Mitigations section of this advisory to reduce the risk of compromise."

This attack comes after Donald Trump warned a "whole civilisation" could "die tonight" if Iran fails to comply with his demand to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The threat sparked calls for him to be removed from office, with one former White House director demanding he be ousted "immediately".

"Wake up: he is calling for a nuclear strike," said Anthony Scaramucci, who served in Trump's first administration in July 2017. "Seek his removal immediately," the former communications director added.

Trump has given the Iranian regime until 8pm ET today (1am on Wednesday UK time) to re-open the Strait of Hormuz.