As part of the ramp up of the war taking place in cyberspace between various nations and non-state actors, the FBI, in their role as the lead counterintelligence agency for this country when inside our borders, has issued an alert about Iranian cyber activites.
Although most Americans do not consider the FBI to be an intelligence agency, they are, in fact, one of the famous 3 - letter agencies (CIA, NSA, DIA, NRO, etc) and they are responsible for seeing that bad people who are attacking American citizens or corporations or whatever are thwarted. Particularly when whatever is happening takes place inside our national borders where agencies like the CIA are not allowed to operate, generally speaking.
Thus, when the predecessor to the NSA started decrypting Soviet messages (Venona) and discovered that they, the Soviets, were running significant intelligence operations in the US, it was the FBI that the NSA turned to as the proper authority to disrupt these activities and where possible identify and prosecute the Soviet agents.
As you presumably know, the war in cyberspace has been ongoing for over a decade, but the US has only in the last few years started mobilizing cyberdefense and cyberoffense activites.
Of course, certain announcements by the FBI regarding Cyberwar have not always worked out. For example, SONY was probably not hacked by North Korea, but rather by a very spiteful and talented former employee and IT worker.
Nevertheless, it is the FBI's job in all this to investigate but also to educate and warn Americans who may be at risk. Hence this alert.
Page 1 of the Alert
You may read the entire notice at the following link.
If you do not know the Venona story referenced above you really should read about it. Its one of the few activities that the NSA feels it can talk about, since it is long over and since it was compromised decades ago.
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