The Islamic Republic of Iran is targetting large population centers in the U.S. for what would likely be a cyberattack on infrastructure and the the power grid, prompting speculation that it may have been looking for payback for an alleged CIA-led attack on the country a few years back.
The Persian pariah has been probing vulnerabilities in the water system just outside New York City by hacking into the control center of a dam, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. New York’s infrastructure supports one of the most densely populated centers in the country, making it a key strategic target for cyberwarfare. New York City is also a key banking and finance hub for the global economy.
“The breach came amid attacks by hackers linked to Iran’s government against the websites of U.S. banks, and just a few years after American spies had damaged an Iranian nuclear facility with a sophisticated computer worm called Stuxnet,” the newspaper reports. “In Oct. 2012, then-Defense Secreatry Leon Pannetta called out Iran’s hacking, prompting fears of cyberwar.”
Gaining a foothold into this command-and-control of any system can prove critical in disabling it, reports the newspaper.
“These systems control the flow in pipelines, the movements of drawbridges and water releases from dams. A hacker could theoretically cause an explosion, a flood or a traffic jam,” the newspaper says.
“The still-classified dam intrusion illustrates a top concern for U.S. officials as they enter an age of digital state-on-state conflict,” it reports. “America’s power grid, factories, pipelines, bridges and dams — all prime targets for digital armies — are sitting largely unprotected on the Internet. And, unlike in a traditional war, it is sometimes difficult to know whether or where an opponent has struck.”
At the sametime, Keith Alexander, the former head of the National Security Agency, told the Associated Press Monday that state-backed hackers from Russia, China and Iran had been specifically targetting the U.S. power grid at least a dozen time in the last decade.
“The grid is a tough target, but a lucrative target,” Alexander told the AP. “The number of sophisticated attacks is growing. There is a constant, steady upbeat.”
These reports come after the Department of Energy and the utility industry conducted cyberattack drills on the East Coast last month. Industry officials with a public-private security initiative with the Energy Department said the grid was placed on high alert after the Islamic State attacked Paris in November. The cyberattack drills came soon after.
