Iran is to expand what it calls "smart filtering" of the Internet, a policy of censoring undesirable content on websites without banning them completely, as it used to, the government said on Friday. The Islamic Republic has some of the strictest controls on Internet access in the world, but its blocks on U.S.-based social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are routinely bypassed by tech-savvy Iranians using virtual private networks (VPNs). Under the new scheme, Tehran could lift its blanket ban on those sites and, instead, filter their content.

Iran has started developing a new cybersecurity strategy, which will make cyber-operations top priority for both the army and national intelligence agencies. According to Western analysts, should the conflict between Iran and the West turn from bad to worse, Tehran could use cyber-attacks to inflict substantial damage on critical infrastructure in the United States and its allies, including power plants and financial networks.

When Israel stepped up Operation Protective Edge in Gaza in July, a crew of hackers going under the name of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Cyber Fighters readied their attack tools to show support for their Palestinian brothers. They attempted to flood a core piece of Israel s internet infrastructure, the Domain Name System that acts as the web s phone book for the country. They also tried to take down websites for the national stock exchange and Mossad, the intelligence and special operations body. Months of research into Iranian networks uncovered at least 16,000 systems controlled by Iran outside of its borders.