After the United States bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities on Saturday, will its government strike back?

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that U.S. officials are warning that could happen, but not through traditional warfare.

The outlet noted that the concern should be about cyberattacks; however, reporting said there has not been news of said attack as of Monday, but sources agree Iran — if they choose to retaliate — will likely pursue this course.

Such a cyberattack would, however, be carefully calculated as to not poke the bear too much.

Officials believe Iranian activist groups — hacktivists — would deface U.S. websites or engage in denial-of-service attacks to take them offline temporarily.

The Department of Homeland Security said as much on Sunday: “Low-level cyberattacks against U.S. networks by pro-Iranian hacktivists are likely, and cyber actors affiliated with the Iranian government may conduct attacks against U.S. networks.”

Chief analyst at Google Threat Intelligence John Hultquist said the Iranians are adept at playing up such attacks, despite their minimal damage.

“They are really clever when it comes to this,” he said.

“If you get the right misleading evidence and get someone moving fast enough, you might get that reported as much more significant than it was. One powerful headline might be enough to take back to their domestic audience.” Hultquist said on the ramifications for an attack when it comes to impacting Iranian public opinion towards opposing the U.S.

The Post noted, this would not be the first time Iran committed a cyberattack. In 2012, the Iranians took 30,000 computers belonging to Saudi Aramco down, cutting oil production in half. In 2014, an attack against a Sands Casino, owned by Sheldon Adelson who is known for his support of Israel, was also carried out by Iran.

More recently, Iran hacked Israel’s missile alert system and leaked documents from one of the country’s think tanks.

Adam Meyers, senior vice president at security firm CrowdStrike, said this is a likely course given Iran’s capabilities don’t extend as far as being able to conduct traditional means of warfare on the U.S. “Iran doesn’t have the military force projection to deliver ordnance to the U.S.,” he said adding, “Cyber is kind of the one thing to conduct operations on the U.S. homeland and potentially not trigger a redline response.”

A cyberattack could leak the sensitive private information of U.S. citizens.

In 2020, the Korean Times reported, a group of North Korean hackers were found to have stolen credit card information from European and American targets over the course of a year.

In February 2024, NBC News reported, China had hackers embedded in U.S. infrastructure, ready to carry out an attack if needed.

In 2025, traditional warfare is only one means of attack.

Bombs and bullets can kill, but when a country like Iran wants to conduct a more calculated and subtle response to Saturday’s bombings, cybersecurity experts need to remain on guard.

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