After suffering a sophisticated cyberattack, the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) announced on Friday that it will postpone the publication of official statistical data until further notice. In a statement, INSTAT said that the postponement of data publication is due to the cyberattack that affected some of its systems on January 31. Moreover, it insisted that the 2023 Census data are not the subject of this breach.

Iranian hacking group “Homeland Justice” which earlier claimed responsibility for the cyberattack, reacted again on Telegram, accusing INSTAT of hiding the truth over data access.

“Instat is the largest truth-hider. We now have full access to over a 100 Terabytes of your GIS and census data. The data have also been copied and removed from the servers,” it wrote.

On Thursday, INSTAT reported that a cyberattack had affected some of its systems. After closing internet links and activating emergency protocols to protect data, experts maintained that only “some of INSTAT systems were affected,” but not those for a recent census.

The Institute said it was cooperating with authorities to identify the source and motives of the cyberattack, resume normal functioning and strengthen cybersecurity. “Homeland Justice,” which claimed responsibility for the breach, said that the INSTAT data are in their hands.