Sean Lyngaas
Hospitals, water dams and power plants across the US are on alert for any potential Iranian cyberattacks in retaliation for US airstrikes on Iran nuclear sites over the weekend.
The United States dropped massive bombs on three nuclear sites inside Iran on Saturday, decisively entering into conflict with the country. In the three days since the US strikes, the US power grid’s cyberthreat-sharing center has monitored the dark web for Iranian activity, and hospital executives have checked in on the threat level with the FBI, sources familiar with those conversations told CNN.
It’s a state of vigilance dictated by common sense: For Iran, retaliation against the US is far easier in cyberspace than physically. Tehran-linked hackers have previously attacked American hospitals and water facilities.
“Iran’s kinetic retaliation is already in motion and the digital dimension to that may not be far behind,” Adam Meyers, a senior vice president at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, told CNN on Monday, shortly after Iran fired missiles towards a US military base in Qatar in retaliation for the US strikes. “This cyber element is what lets them extend their reach and there’s an air of deniability to it.”
There haven’t been any new confirmed breaches of US organizations from Iranian hackers, Meyers said. But hackers linked with Iran have reportedly been scanning the internet for vulnerable software and have been talking openly about retaliating against US organizations, he said.
Hours after the Iranian missile strikes, President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. But it remained unclear Monday night in the US – early Tuesday morning in the Middle East – whether the fragile equilibrium would hold.
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