An Iran War Danger — Cyber Attack Retaliation

Cyber experts are warning of potential cyber attacks from Iran. The nation can’t match our physical weaponry but it can easily attack key cyber systems in the U.S.

Recorded Future is a private intelligence company. Its senior advisor for government affairs, Alexander Leslie and Jake Braun, executive director of the Cyber Policy Initiative at the University of Chicago say the U.S. needs to be on high alert because of the attacks on Iran. 

"“Cyber is no longer auxiliary to conflict. It is part of the battlefield,” Leslie said. “We’re tracking groups associated with the Revolutionary Guard Corps and with the Ministry of Intelligence, and those groups have gone silent. And as of this moment, there is no evidence suggesting any significant attacks on U.S. critical infrastructure linked to Iranian threat groups.”

While there have been no major cyber attack pushes, Leslie said his firm has seen evidence of low-level, low-intensity attacks from Iran hacktivist groups.

Braun — who was the overseer of national cyber security strategy at the White House for the Biden administration — said in the past Iran has shown the ability to attack and infiltrate the nation’s infrastructure from banks and healthcare systems to water treatment facilities and oil refineries.

"The first event I did as a White House official was in Pittsburgh right after an Iranian cyber attack on their water infrastructure,” Braun said. "Iran has attacked our banking system, they've attacked oil infrastructure, they've done mis-and-disinformation during elections, they've attacked water utilities and other critical infrastructure. I think we can expect all those attacks, again, and more severe attacks.”

Leslie pointed out the lack of attacks so far could be because the nation’s internet is blacked out. That’s possibly due to key, and deliberate, air strikes on servers.

Both men warn everyone in the country — especially those in charge of key infrastructure and banking facilities — to be on the alert.

"They want to be able to show that you can't attack them with impunity, that they will respond. And they want to point out to us how fragile our systems are," Braun said.

Source link: CBS News — https://bit.ly/3Nj4PWN