Iranians May Retaliate with AI and Cyber
By
Branko Terzic
The successful US attack on three nuclear sites in Iran on June 22 was met two days later with an Iranian missile attack on the US Al Udeid Air base in Qatar. The next day President Trump announced a cease fire agreement between Iran and Isreal had been reached. Is that the end of any Iranian retaliation?
Possibly not. Another approach to retaliation available to Iran is the use of a cyber forces. Experts speculate that Iran would engage in cyber attacks at a level which will not result in a major US counter-attack. The attacks may not come directly from Iranian government sponsored hackers but from Middles-Eastern groups and agents friendly to Iran and opposed to US policy in the region.
Iran invested heavily in cyber operations after its nuclear program was crippled by the Stuxnet cyber-attack in 2009. The Stuxnet worm destroyed thousands of centrifuges Iran was using to enrich uranium for weapons purposes.
On Sunday June 22 the Department of Homeland Security ‘s National Terrorism Advisory System issued a warning that:
“Low level cyber attacks against U.S, network by pro-Iranian hacktivists and likely, and cyber actors affiliated with the Iranian government may conduct attacks against U.S. networks.”[1]
Cyber experts, including those in Iran, are working on new systems which incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI). Vasu Jakkal, vice president security is quoted in a Financial Times article by Misha Glenny as saying
“…threat actors are going to use agentic AI for their own benefits. We are already seeing some of this...They are using it to launch new kinds of attacks, whether it’s new vulnerabilities that they can find or it’s malware and variants of malware.”[2]
Glenny concludes “The speed of innovation in the AI sector has reached a breathtaking level.”
Reminding us again that all software is subject to hacking, while hardware (“HardSec’) is not. Another reason to check out Q Net Security at https://qnetsecurity.com/
[1] https://www.dhs.gov/ntas/advisory/national-terrorism-advisory-system-bulletin-june-22-2025
[2] Misha Glenny, Financial Times 7/8 June 2025 “Code Red”
The Honorable Branko Terzic is a former Commissioner on the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and State of Wisconsin Public Service Commission, in addition to energy industry experience was a US Army Reserve Foreign Area Officer ( FAO) for Eastern Europe (1979-1990). He hold a BS Engineering and honorary Doctor of Sciences in Engineering (h.c.) both from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee.
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