
PC: Fox 11 Online
(WTAQ-WLUK) — The United States’ recent bombings of Iran and Iran’s subsequent attack on a U.S. military base in Qatar are sparking concerns of more retaliation, but not only in the traditional sense.
A former FBI agent says there’s a moderate risk Iran could respond with cyber attacks on U.S. infrastructure.
Not necessarily looking for money, but for destruction.
“They’ve shut down hospitals. They’ll shut down institutions, but our utilities, our water, our electric — that’s where they’re gonna focus. If they really want to hurt us, that’s what they’ll do,” retired FBI agent Jack Jupin of Jupin International said.
Jupin said the agency is ready, should a cyber attack be launched. He said historically, this is how Iran has responded, but he believes the odds of a cyber attack happening on U.S. infrastructure and utilities is moderate.
“If they do retaliate, if one human being is hurt or our infrastructure is hurt in any way by a cyber attack, they’ll face the reign of God,” Jupin said.
Jupin said the FBI is looking out for cyber sleeping cells too. That’s when a group of people who commit cyber crimes are inactive until they are ordered to do so.
While it’s important to be on high alert for this type of attack, Jupin said Iran doesn’t want to go up against the U.S. military.
He also said Iran is practically surrounded by the U.S. right now with submarines and warships. However, the purpose of an Iranian cyber attack on the U.S. would be for revenge, without dealing with the physical injuries missiles cause.
“It’s an easy way where you’re not going to get physically hurt, you’re not going to physically hurt somebody else, but what you are going to do is disrupt society,” Jupin said.
While there’s a chance of a cyber attack happening, an Appleton cyber expert said Iran is likely not going to be targeting individuals. Still, it’s important to be on high alert to avoid even the slightest possibility.
“The world that we live in today, it is just getting more and more complicated and we need to be more cyber vigilant,” Curt Esser of Esser Consulting, LLC said.
Since Iran’s main target would likely be U.S. infrastructure, it’s important for companies, the government and organizations to have the most up to date systems. This includes having intrusion detection systems, strong passwords, and multi-factor authentication.
Esser said anything online could be hacked.
“Hopefully these other utilities are not connected to the internet. I have concerns though that some of them are,” Esser said.
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