Critical U.S. Networks Still Prime Targets For Iranian Cyber Attacks

Cyber-attacks have been all the craze in recent years, as most of our foreign adversaries increase their hacking capabilities. There have been multiple successful cyber-attacks in just the last couple years, and some of the most critical American infrastructure is bracing for more. Especially in the wake of the unrest in the Middle East.

Most infrastructure has taken steps to combat these attacks, but there are still ways around the safeguards. Places like China, Russia, North Korea and Iran have put loads of resources into the cyber-attack idea and it has become hard to keep up. That means there is still critical U.S. systems that are at risk of more attacks.

Cyber security expert Damien Fortune says the groundwork has already been laid.

"We have seen for years now our adversarial nations installing malicious software in everything from hospital devices, solar panels, and to the electric grid and water filtration," he says.

Now, there might be a sense of small relief after President Trump announced a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran. But Iran still despises the United States. So just because there is not military conflict does not mean there cannot be other conflict. Such as a cyber-attack.

All of these countries that oppose us have been working together to increase their cyber attacking capabilities. Meanwhile, in the U.S. we have just started fully grasping the situation and updating systems. But with how quickly they are advancing, we are a bit behind the curve.

"Some of our adversaries ramped up their offensive cyber divisions well before we did," says Fortune. "China, North Korea, Russia and Iran all have invested heavily into offensive cyber capabilities."

As noted, there have been multiple breaches already across the country. Hospitals and data centers have been hacked, with most recently billions of passwords being dropped in another hack.

But the bigger issue is the infrastructure. Specifically, the power grid and water filtration systems. Just a few years ago, the U.S. territory of Guam was hit with an attack that knocked out power for a few days. If that were to happen here, it would kickoff chaos.

"The idea would be things would devolve quickly if something like that happened, same would go for access to clean and running water," Fortune says.

Iran has been weakened during the conflict with Israel; there is no doubting that. At least militarily and as far as nuclear capabilities go. But their aggressive stance on cyber attacks remains high, and it might be a much bigger threat than Iranian nukes.