Zhanna Malekos Smith '16 writes about potential new cyber threats from Iran

Writing for Just Security, Jessica “Zhanna” Malekos Smith ’16 explores how the United States’ withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Iran nuclear deal might affect Iran’s malicious cyber operations against Western institutions.

“Based on Iran’s cyber targeting history and the Trump administration’s recent announcement that it will restore economic penalties against Iran’s energy industry, Western energy and financial institutions are at a heightened risk as targets for disruption and espionage,” writes Malekos Smith, the Reuben Everett Cyber Scholar at Duke University.

Malekos Smith holds a J.D. from UC Davis School of Law, a B.A. from Wellesley College and is finishing her M.A. with the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Before that, she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Belfer Center’s Cyber Security Project at the Harvard Kennedy School.