Increased
Threat of Iran Cyberattack Should Not Stop US Sanctions
Experts
have warned that the US could face increased cyber attacks from Iran in
response to the reimposed US sanctions that came into place on Monday.
Concerns
about US cybersecurity and increased threats from Iran have been rising since
May, when Donald Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal on Iran andpromised the return of harsh economic sanctions.
Priscilla
Moriuchi, director of strategic threat development at Recorded Future, a global
real-time cyber threat intelligence company, said: “While we
have no specific threats, we have seen an increase in chatter related to
Iranian threat activity over the past several weeks.”
American
intelligence agencies have singled out Iran as one of the main foreign cyber
threats, citing a wave of attacks on banks, which caused damage worth tens of
millions of dollars, and critical infrastructure, which were thwarted, between
2012 and 2014.
This
threat was further compounded by a statement from General Qassem Soleimani, who
heads the elite Quds Force of Iran’s hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary
Guard. Last month, he issued a threat about Iran’s capabilities in “asymmetric
war”, which is believed to have been a reference to cyber attacks.
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| Qassem Soleimani |
However, it is important to note that despite Iran’s extensive cyber attacks and the damage that they could cause, the only reason that Iran is so adept at this “non-traditional warfare” is that they are too weak to use traditional warfare.
Iran
knows that its military force is no match to that of the US or Saudi Arabia or
Israel, which is why they prefer to use underhand methods, like funding
terrorist cells or conducting cyber espionage, in order to attack their
enemies. These methods allow them to cause the maximum amount of damage without
risking the safety of their own leaders.
Better
yet, Iran can also deflect blame by pointing the finger to the Houthi militia
in Yemen as solely responsible for the missile attacks on Saudi Arabia or
individual hackers responsible for creating chaos in the US banking system.
Luckily,
the US has learnt from Iran’s previous cyber attacks and is prepared for
whatever Iran tries next, so they should not kowtow to Iran.
They should
protect themselves against attacks and respond accordingly if an attack takes
place, but they should not lift the sanctions.
The US
State Department has rightly assessed that Iran is the world’s leading sponsor
of terrorism and that these sanctions will harm Iran’s ability to create chaos
in the Middle East. The US does not back down to terrorists and they should not
start now.
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