CNN: U.S. plans to publicly blame Iran for dam cyber breach

Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz report today at CNN that

The Obama administration is preparing to publicly attribute a 2013 cyber attack against a New York dam to Iranian hackers, according to U.S. officials familiar with the investigation.

The Justice Department has prepared an indictment against people thought to be behind the attack, according to the officials. An announcement could come in the next week.

The intrusion at the Bowman Avenue Dam, around 30 miles north of New York City in suburban Rye, New York, isn't considered sophisticated -- the hackers managed only to get access to some back office systems, not the operational systems of the dam, U.S. officials say. U.S. investigators quickly determined the attack was carried out by hackers working for the Iranian government.

...The public attribution of the dam attack is part of a U.S. strategy shift in recent years to publicly "name and shame" countries and, if possible, people behind the proliferation of cyber intrusions targeting U.S. companies and government networks.

In 2014, the Justice Department filed charges against members of the Chinese military allegedly behind a series of intrusions of U.S. industrial companies. Last year, the FBI publicly named North Korea as behind the devastating attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment.

..."The fact that you can affect the infrastructure with stuff you can download off the Internet shouldn't give us any comfort," Taddeo said. It shows that "actors with very little skill" can do tremendous damage, he added.

Iranian cyber activity is on the upswing, and top U.S. intelligence officials say they are increasing resources to counter the possible threat, even amid a diplomatic rapprochement between the U.S. and Iran following the nuclear agreement.

The U.S. has also been partly behind cyber attacks on Iran's nuclear program. In 2009 and 2010, U.S. and Israeli spies used a malicious computer bug called Stuxnet to damage an Iranian nuclear facility.

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