Cyberattack concerns grow as Iran retaliates against the US following bombings of nuclear sites

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- On Monday, Iran launched a missile attack on a U.S. military base in Qatar that was intercepted. This action increased concerns of other aspects of retaliations against the U.S following the bombings of multiple of Iran's nuclear sites.

As Iran retaliates against the US overseas, on U.S soil one of the main concerns is online.

"A long time Iran has been one of the four major nation state actors, threats to the US in cyber space," said Christopher Painter, Founding Principal of the Cyber policy group.

Christopher Painter is a globally recognized expert on cyber policy. He said the U.S has known of Iran's capabilities for decades.

"We have certainly seen incidences attacks, intrusions from Iran before. The big one against our financial sector a few years ago. So, Iran has capabilities, and Iran has potential intent and its possible Iran in addition to kinetic sort responses to what has happened recently would also do something in cyberspace against the U.S," said Painter.

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On Sunday, the U.S department of Homeland Security put out an alert confirming the potential of what they identified as:

"Low-level cyber-attacks against US networks by pro-Iranian hacktivists" calling them "likely."

On Monday, U.S secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem confirmed she has not seen any suspicious activity related to Iran in the homeland since the bombing of the nuclear sites, yet she elaborated on sleeper cells.

"We have seen both for overseas and some that have been here maybe gone overseas for some short period of time become radicalized and come back or individuals that are right here in the United States. We have to watch for all of it," said Noem.

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San Francisco is one of the few cities and counties in the nation that has a dedicated office of cybersecurity. We spoke to the team leading this department.

Luz Pena: "Are there any concerns right now? Any threats?"

"We are not aware of anything specific to San Francisco. We are on higher alert because of the warnings, and we are monitoring the situation," said Michael Makstman, Chief information Officer for the city and county of San Francisco.

Part of the plan is to stay vigilant with a focus on critical infrastructure.

"Right now, we monitor on a 24 by 7 basis. So, there are engineers, and we have services that monitor our infrastructure, end points, services that we have that are used by the public and so right now we are making sure that we don't see any behaviors that are kind of anomalous to us," said Nathan Sinclair, Chief information security Officer for the city and county of San Francisco.

As part of Sunday's alert, the U.S department of Homeland security also pointed out that this conflict could also motivate violent extremists seeking to attack targets perceived to be Jewish, pro-Israel, or linked to the U.S. government or military in the U.S.