Iranian hackers were capable to attack the private bank accounts of leading Lebanese officials, including President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad Hariri. According to a report published by the French newspaper Le Figaro on Monday, the hacking shows that Iran has embarked on a large-scale cyber piracy operation. The attacks also targeted the Lebanese ministries of justice and foreign affairs, in addition to the army, the Central bank and other Lebanese banks. Quoting intelligence sources, the newspaper said that the electronic attack was conducted by Iranians and was funded by the government. The sources said that they believe the hacking is similar to what Russian parties had done in the United States in 2016 during the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. The newspaper wrote that Tehran was following Russia’s model by resorting to electronic operations to “expand its control over the Middle East region.” Le Figaro wrote an in-depth report on the issue Monday, entitled “Lebanon, Syria, Iraq: How Iran Expands its Control?” The report includes a number of investigative articles, the first under the title of “Shi’ite Crescent” and the second entitled, “The Four Faces of ‘Hezbollah’.” It also includes an interview with Lebanese-French researcher called Aurelie Daher about the favors “Hezbollah” offered to the Syrian regime. However, what is interesting in Le Figaro file is an investigation focused on the electronic operations conducted by Iran against high-ranking Lebanese officials. It said that the Iranian hackers of the operation "Oilrig" have been hacking Lebanese servers for more than six months. According to the daily,, the hackers had access to Aoun and Hariri’s email accounts and had already gathered several documents and passwords to be used prior to the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for May 2018 in Lebanon. Le Figaro said the hackers had “the intention to try to influence the polls in favor of the Shi’ites and ‘Hezbollah’ in Lebanon.”