NEW YORK (WABC) — The NYPD is not only stepping up security at embassies, mosques, and synagogues, but law enforcement is also on alert for potential cyber attacks.<\/p>\n
Experts believe Iran and its proxies are weighing their options when it comes to cyber attacks. At FBI headquarters, teams have been working around the clock, knowing for the first time since 1979 that Iran is backed into a corner.<\/p>\n
“This is one layer of the battlefield that is happening, the one that we can’t see as clearly because there are no plumes of smoke,” Matthew Levitt, The Washington Institute Director, said.<\/p>\n
Instead, error messages and unusual activity on the web.<\/p>\n
Iran has a long history of infiltrating systems and carrying out sweeping cyber attacks.<\/p>\n
Once again, the U.S. and its allies are in the crosshairs.<\/p>\n
“The reason this is a moment of particular concern is because never has the Islamic Republic been as far on it’s back heels and as weak as it is now,” Levitt said.<\/p>\n
Levitt is a counterterrorism expert and heads the program at The Washington Institute.<\/p>\n
On the heels of Saturday’s joint military attack, he says it’s unclear what Iran’s arsenal of cyber tools looks like.<\/p>\n
He points out that with the nation’s leadership in shambles, it could embolden bad actors around the world to strike.<\/p>\n
“If you’re someone who is sitting at a keyboard and waiting for instruction and no instruction is coming and you see bombs are falling, your supreme leader is killed, there’s also no one reigning you in,” Levitt said.<\/p>\n
But experts stress, just as the U.S military was planning for this recent attack, so too was Cyber Command, strengthening its already robust, offensive and defensive capabilities.<\/p>\n
Still, former top FBI cyber official Cynthia Kaiser urges companies to act now.<\/p>\n
“Organizations that have not patched bugs in software and flaws in software,” Cynthia Kaiser, a former FBI Cyber Official, said.<\/p>\n
Along with reviewing their incident response plan.<\/p>\n
“Knowing who to call, what to do and importantly how to message that publicly so they can quickly respond and stay ahead of these threats,” Kaiser said.<\/p>\n
Experts say one strategy Iran has used in the past is taking a small cyber disruption here and blowing that up internally, keeping that narrivate up, hoping the U.S. will back off, something the President insists is not happening anytime soon.<\/p>\n
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