The Iranian government has vowed to get revenge on the United States following a targeted airstrike that took out top military commander Qassem Soleimani and his associates. There has been plenty of speculation about how Iran could attempt to get their revenge, but some top experts have their ideas on what could be coming.
While one theory was the Iranian military could take retaliatory action against the U.S. by targeting military bases in the Middle East, their limited military capability and resources make other options more likely.
So how could Iran target the United States? A number of experts believe that Iran could launch a series of cyberattacks rather than traditional warfare.
CISA director Chris Krebs told Mother Jones: “Iranian regime actors and proxies are increasingly using destructive ‘wiper’ attacks, looking to do much more than just steal data and money. These efforts are often enabled through common tactics like spear phishing, password spraying, and credential stuffing. What might start as an account compromise, where you think you might just lose data, can quickly become a situation where you’ve lost your whole network.”
The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a statement last summer warning of cybersecurity threats from Iran.
Iranian attacks could focus on U.S. banks, casinos, and other entities. As recently as Saturday, Iranian hackers claimed to hack the home page of the U.S. Federal Depository Library program with a photo showing Donald Trump being punched in the face by an Islamic Revolutionary Guard as blood pours from his mouth.
“We are aware the website of the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) was defaced with pro-Iranian, anti-US messaging,” a spokesperson for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Sara Sendek, said, via CNN. “CISA is monitoring the situation with FDLP and our federal partners.”
What exactly comes next remains to be seen, but tensions continue to rise and U.S. troops in the area will have to be on high alert.
