In a statement released on Wednesday, Azerbaijani authorities announced that they were experiencing ‘intensive cyberattacks’ against ‘state information infrastructures’. A pro-Iranian hacker group has claimed responsibility for the attack, while Azerbaijan has blamed a ‘foreign hacker group’.
Azerbaijan’s State Service for Special Communications and Information Security said that the attacks were recorded ‘starting at around 22:00 on 13 October 2026'.
‘The attack was carried out by a foreign hacker group, targeting more than 100 state domains on the state information infrastructure of the Republic of Azerbaijan.’
Azerbaijan has not specified which country they are blaming for the attack, but the ‘313 Team,’ a pro-Iranian hacker group believed to be operating out of Iraq, has claimed responsibility,
In a Telegram statement on Tuesday at 21:00 Baku time, the group said they had ‘launched a massive, sophisticated cyberattack targeting 47 key IP ranges belonging to the Republic of Azerbaijan’s government digital infrastructure.’ The group named Azerbaijan’s ban on hijabs in schools as motivation and said the attack would last 24 hours.
‘We have received numerous complaints against the government of the Republic of Azerbaijan regarding the ban on female students wearing the hijab in schools and universities. Given the significant size of the Shia community in Azerbaijan, we will take firm action against the state: we will completely destroy its government digital infrastructure.’
The 313 Team claimed that the cyberattack’s intensity exceeded ‘2.5 terabits per second’ and ‘caused a complete paralysis of all Azerbaijani government websites—including the official state portal, as well as the sites of the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Interior’. They said 1,825 government websites were offline. Azerbaijani authorities have said 100 domains were affected.
While the agency claimed that ‘the effects of the cyberattack were limited and the continuity of the sites' activities was ensured,’ OC Media journalists were unable to access many Azerbaijani government websites at the time of reporting: including domains for the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Science and Education, Ministry of Emergency Situations, and Ministry of Health.
Other domains, such as for the State Security Service, appear to be working but at a slower pace.
The cyberattack comes after several social media sites, including Instagram and TikTok, were blocked in Azerbaijan on 12 October as the country experiences growing protests against a ban on students and teachers wearing hijab in public schools.
The social media blackout seems to have lifted as of this morning, with social media users in Baku claiming that they no longer have to use a VPN.
OC MediaRafig Shahbazov
The cyberattack comes as tensions between Iran and Azerbaijan have intensified since Baku implemented a ban on wearing hijabs in schools for students and teachers.
Iran and Azerbaijan’s relationship has been historically highly fractious but with a larger ethnic Azerbaijani population than the entire population of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Tehran has historically approached its policies cautiously, as missteps could alienate the country’s largest ethnic minority.
OC MediaNigar Hasanova
Baku has historically closely watched Tehran’s policies towards Azerbaijanis, especially during periods of political tension between the two countries.
However, relations seem to have gone into freefall during the recent hijab protests, with Azerbaijani authorities accusing Iranian outlets and figures of inflating the situation.
On Wednesday, Azerbaijan’s media council claimed that Iran’s Saher TV channel was deliberately spreading misinformation around the protests – claiming that the state channel was presenting footage of an event from Turkey as ‘a protest organised in our country to support individuals wearing hijabs’.
The council has also claimed that ‘public figures, politicians, and even officials’ from multiple foreign countries were ‘actively participating in targeted information campaigns against Azerbaijan’, specifically saying there had been an ‘intensification’ in attacks from Iran and Turkey.
This is a developing story.