Araz News via trt: A senior Iranian general has said Iranian authorities with security clearance to classified information will no longer use smartphones.

Gen. Gholam Reza Jalali, head of a military unit in charge of combatting sabotage, said on Saturday new regulations banning Iranian authorities from using smartphones have been prepared.

“Iranian authorities with access to classified information will be banned from using smartphones,” Jalali was quoted by ISNA news agency on Saturday.

“Smartphone manufacturers install some applications in devices that users cannot uninstall at all,” he added.

“Smartphone users should know that manufacturers can get access to any kind of data stored on these devices.”

Iran says it has been targeted by several viruses over the years.

A sophisticated virus, known as Duqu 2.0, is reported to have hacked into venues that hosted the nuclear negotiations in Austria and Switzerland.

Internet security experts in the past have said Duqu appears to have been developed and deployed by Israel, which Israel denies.

In 2010, Stuxnet virus infiltrated Iran’s nuclear sites and caused significant harm.

Reprinted from trtworld