New York Times: Concerns Over Potential Cyber Attacks from Iran Following U.S. Withdrawal from JCPOA

The New York Times reported an increase in concerns in the United States and Israel regarding potential cyber attacks by Iranian hackers following Donald Trump's withdrawal from the JCPOA. According to the report published on Friday, May 10, cybersecurity experts in the U.S. and Israel fear that the U.S. President's decision to exit the JCPOA could lead to retaliatory actions from Iran in cyberspace. Consequently, the cybersecurity unit at the U.S. Department of Defense, the Pentagon, and the cyber intelligence unit in Israel have been closely monitoring 'internet traffic from inside to outside Iran' since last week, as reported by the New York Times. Last Tuesday, Donald Trump officially announced that the United States was withdrawing from the nuclear agreement with Iran and would reinstate suspended sanctions against Tehran. The New York Times states that only hours after this official announcement, researchers at an American security firm warned of a 'significant change' in Iran's cyber activity. Among these activities was the sending of emails containing malware by 'Iranian hackers' to diplomats from U.S. allied countries and employees of telecommunications companies 'to infiltrate their computer systems.' In this context, General Keith Alexander, former director of the National Security Agency (NSA), told the New York Times: 'Now that the JCPOA has been torn up, our country and our allies need to be prepared for something we have seen in the past.' Alexander referred to previous cyber attacks by Iranian hackers targeting the energy sector and U.S. government agencies, including an attack on a dam near New York. In support of this statement, Matt Olsen, a former NSA advisor, also mentioned in an interview with the New York Times that Iran's cyber capabilities have 'rapidly increased' and 'it can be predicted that these capabilities will be used against the U.S.' This is not the first time that experts and cybersecurity firms have warned about the increasing capabilities of the Islamic Republic in cyberspace. Earlier, in 2014, the American cybersecurity firm Mandiant had reported that the recent cyber attacks by Iranian hackers on the energy sector and government agencies in the United States indicated an increased threat to America. Olsen also identified the energy sector in the U.S. as a potential target for Iranian hackers. The U.S. government has been monitoring the cyber activities of hackers believed to be linked to the Islamic Republic for years, and in some cases has sanctioned or prosecuted some of them. For instance, in April of this year, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned an institution and ten Iranians for hacking hundreds of American and international universities. This entity and the ten Iranians are accused of hacking over 31 terabytes of academic information from 144 American universities and 176 international universities in 21 countries. Previously, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the U.S. reported that security agencies in Iran have increasingly become adept at cyber espionage and destructive attacks, with their actions targeting opponents of the Iranian government both inside and outside the country, as well as civil institutions in Iran, and government, defense, commercial, and diplomatic organizations in the U.S., Israel, Germany, and Saudi Arabia. This report focused on the destructive actions of the Iranian government in cyberspace, noting that such offensive operations are conducted under misleading public accounts to allow the Iranian government to showcase its capabilities while evading responsibility for such actions.