[AnimalMuppet]

That does not follow. "Decentralized" is not a defense against "penetrated by the NSA". It just means that it's more work - one attack doesn't give you the keys to everything.

On the other side, from the Iranian perspective, it means that systems are secured by different people from different organizations with different degrees of training. That's a recipe for a number of attackable systems.

[igivanov]

It means they are off the grid and are trained to act independently of the central command.

[AnimalMuppet]

I'm pretty sure that there are exactly zero units of the Iranian military that have independent authority to, for example, start shooting missiles at US Navy warships. They may be able to act independently once they understand that it's time to open fire. But to decide to start... that's a central command decision.

[igivanov]

But they will start shooting when they learn that a conflict has started. You know, if a US attack in the strait begins it will become obvious pretty pretty soon. Also they don't need a sophisticated link from the top to start an attack, just a simple command.