Iran-linked hacktivists could target governments, experts warn

State and local governments and some crucial technology infrastructure are among the key retaliatory targets as hostilities escalate in the Middle East.

Further escalating hostilities in Iran could leave state and local governments in the crosshairs of hacktivists aligned with the regime as they look to retaliate in cyberspace, experts warned this week.

While internet traffic in Iran itself has dropped precipitously since the U.S. and Israel began their bombing campaign over the weekend, observers with the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center warned that groups aligned with the Iranian regime in other countries may strike vulnerable targets, including government websites, financial services and the energy sectors.

Randy Rose, MS-ISAC’s vice president for security operations and intelligence, said this could at first take the form of “low-level cyber activity” like denial-of-service attacks, website defacement and malicious code injections. And TJ Sayers, MS-ISAC’s senior director of threat intelligence ...