The recent assassination of Iran’s General Qassim Soleimani by the U.S. opened another hornet’s nest with Iran, including a warning by Iran to avenge Soleimani’s death. And although Iranian officials state their retribution has been completed, cybersecurity experts agree the killing could let loose a torrent of cyberattacks against the U.S. and its interests. In an already volatile era of cyber-swipes against the U.S. government, Iranian bad actors seeking revenge are on the move. Whether state-sponsored or lone wolf attacks, U.S. agencies have been directed to be on the lookout for increased cyberattacks from Iranian-linked hacker groups.
Immediately after the attack against Soleimani, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a new National Terrorism Advisory System bulletin to government agencies. The bulletin warned agencies to be hyper-aware of potential cyber retaliation by Iran against our critical infrastructure. The DHS statement reads in part “Iran maintains a robust cyber program and can execute cyber attacks against the United States. Iran is capable, at a minimum, of carrying out attacks with temporary disruptive effects against critical infrastructure in the United States.”
Following the death of Soleimani, numerous websites were defaced by Iranian hackers with anti-American messages vowing revenge. The Federal Deposit Library Program (FDLP) website, run by the U.S. Government Printing Office, was compromised shortly after Soleimani’s elimination. Experts were quick to point out the FDLP website had not applied security patch updates for many years and as a result was ripe for trouble. The website hack included pro-Iranian messages and an image of a bloodied President Trump, also courtesy of Iran. According to CBS news, one caption read “this is only small part of Iran’s cyber ability!”
Cyberattacks among adversarial governments are nothing new, but in times of unusually high tension, those threat levels escalate. Cybersecurity experts remind users on all levels about the importance of keeping security and other software patched and updated as soon as they are available. Just because this was a political situation, doesn’t mean private organizations are safe from attack. You can bet the FDLP website and those responsible for its
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