NPR:

Cybersecurity researchers and U.S. government officials said hackers linked to Iran are probing American companies for vulnerabilities.

The warnings suggest that the next phase of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, following the Jan. 3 killing of a top Iranian general in an American drone strike, is likely to play out in cyberspace.

The Iranian regime is accused of being behind some high-profile online operations against American targets in recent years.

Between 2011 and 2013, hackers targeted big American banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Capital One. They flooded the banks' computer networks with traffic, knocking them offline and costing millions of dollars in lost business.

In 2018, a ransomware attack crippled the city of Atlanta, leaving police officers to write reports by hand and city workers punching in and out with time clocks.

In both cases, Iranian nationals were ultimately indicted.

In one of the most high-profile cases, hackers destroyed data on computers at the Sands casino in Las Vegas, after its billionaire owner, Sheldon Adelson, called for a nuclear strike on Iran.

Iran's investment in its cyber army dates back to 2010, the year a powerful computer worm called Stuxnet infected an Iranian nuclear facility. The U.S. and Israel are believed to have been behind the attack, although neither country has ever acknowledged responsibility.

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