BBC Director, Mark Thompson, is expected to officially announce that a "sophisticated cyber-attack" had been launched on the BBC and has been linked to Iran's efforts to disrupt the BBC Persian Service.
Mr Thompson is also expected to confirm that these attacks took place whilst efforts to jam two of the service's satellite feeds were in progress, something which has been ongoing for many months, along with attempts to block the Persian Service's London phone-lines through the use of numerous automatic calls.
Originating from an except of Mr Thompson's speech, the details go on to state that no further detail will be provided as to the attacks and that the BBC will "ensure that this vital service continues to reach the people who need it."
Iran has recently been slammed by the free-speech lobby group, Reporters Without Borders, for censoring the internet to the point that it is nothing more than an internal intranet with little resemblance to the world-wide-web, blocking VPN ports and slowing speeds to a crawl in times of unrest to prevent the posting of images and videos. With a "cyber army" in place, the Iranian Guard has arrested hundreds of net violators and sentenced several to death.
We wonder if recent attacks are signs of escalation that could bring further attention to Iran and, from a technical standpoint, if the BBC will look to implement any new measures to ensure delivery of its service to the Iranian people.
