U.S. braces for Iran cyberattacks over resumed sanctions
WASHINGTON — The U.S. is bracing for cyberattacks Iran could launch in retaliation for the re-imposition of sanctions this week by President Donald Trump, security and intelligence experts say.
Concern over that threat has been rising since May, when Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal, under which the U.S. and other world powers eased economic sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. The experts say the threat would intensify following Washington’s move Tuesday to re-impose economic restrictions.
“While we have no specific threats, we have seen an increase in chatter related to Iranian threat activity over the past several weeks,” said Priscilla Moriuchi, director of strategic threat development at Recorded Future, a global real-time cyberthreat intelligence company
The Massachusetts-based company predicted in May that the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear agreement would provoke a response from President Hassan Rouhani’s government within two to four months.
U.S. intelligence agencies have singled out Iran as one of the main foreign cyberthreats facing America. A wave of attacks that U.S. authorities blamed on Iran between 2012 and 2014 targeted banks and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage. Attackers also targeted but failed to penetrate critical infrastructure.
Several years ago, the top-secret Stuxnet computer virus destroyed centrifuges involved in Iran’s contested nuclear program. Stuxnet, which is widely believed to be an American and Israeli creation, caused thousands of centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility to spin themselves to destruction at the height of the West’s fears over Iran’s program.
“The United States has been the most aggressive country in the world in offensive cyber activity and publicly boasted about attacking targets across the world,” said Alireza Miryousefi, spokesman for Iran’s diplomatic mission at the United Nations, adding that Iran’s cyber capabilities are “exclusively for defensive purposes.”
Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who heads the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, warned last month about Iran’s capabilities in “asymmetric war,” a veiled reference to nontraditional warfare that could include cyberattacks.