SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Cybersecurity experts in Utah have taken measures to combat an increase in alleged digital intrusion attempts from Iran targeting state government websites.
The automated digital surveillance attempts were not aimed at hacking, but instead identifying weak points in state computer systems, Deseret News reported Thursday.
The alleged attempts were unsuccessful and cybersecurity personal were able to block digital traffic once it was detected, Utah Department of Technology Services spokeswoman Stephanie Weteling said.
The department has not seen any traffic since putting countermeasures in place, she said.
The alleged traffic comes less than a week after a U.S. drone strike killed top Iranian military commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani in Baghdad, experts said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin two days after Soleimani was killed warning state and city entities of potential Iranian retaliation noting the country’s highly developed cyberattack assets, experts said.
“Iran is capable, at a minimum, of carrying out attacks with temporary disruptive effects against critical infrastructure in the United States,” federal officials said in the statement.
The state Department of Public Safety has not received any reports of Iranian activity targeting private sector digital systems in Utah as of Thursday, agency officials said.
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