Director of Iran's Passive Defense Organization has announced plans to build the first Iranian cyber army following the successful launch of the cyber defense headquarters, Press TV reported.

“The U.S. is downsizing its army for bigger cyber defense infrastructure. So countries like Iran also have to set up and upgrade their cyber defense headquarters and even [build] a cyber army,” Brigadier General Gholamreza Jalali said.

Jalali said Iran is one of the first countries that have been targeted by cyber attacks over the past two years, adding, “The facilities which came under attack managed to survive, which means despite the difficulties, Iran is to a great extent immune to such attacks.”

Iran launched a cyber defense headquarters some four months ago. The key task of cyber defense is to prevent computer worms or as some call it cyber weapons from breaking into or stealing data from Iran’s maximum security networks, including nuclear facilities, power plants, data centers and banks.