The latest Department of Homeland (DHS) alerts are telling the American public to expect some form of Iranian retaliation in response to this weekend’s major US bombing raids targeting three key Iranian nuclear energy and uranium enrichment sites.
And the Pentagon is preparing for potential attack on US bases in the Middle East, whether in Iraq or Syria where reduced troop presences still remain, or in the Gulf Arab countries – home to major naval and air bases.
But the latest DHS warnings speak of a not-so-new threat (which gets repeated just about every year) of stepped-up Iranian cyber threat activity.
A fresh terrorism advisory bulletin from DHS warns that Iran’s response could include violent actions on US soil as well as increased cyber operations.
The supposed heightened threat environment predicts likely low-level cyberattacks from pro-Iranian hacktivists, but also more serious threats from state-backed Iranian hackers:
“The ongoing Iran conflict is causing a heightened threat environment in the United States,” the DHS said. “Low-level cyber attacks against US networks by pro-Iranian hacktivists are likely, and cyber actors affiliated with the Iranian government may conduct attacks against US networks.”
But behind the headlines, the reality is that the fear-mongering from US officials will front-run the actual threats and ‘attacks’ – and likely grow louder, according to the all too familiar playbook of the Bush-Cheney era…
Hellbound and Down 