13-January-2015

The FBI is investigating a cyber-attack believed to have been launched by hackers loyal to Islamic State against social media accounts belonging to the U.S. Central Command, which oversees the U.S.-led airstrikes on Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Senior vice president at FaegreBD Consulting, Mary Bono told KESQ news that these types of cyber-attacks are the new battlefront in the war on terror. "It's a new burgeoning threat to the free world and we're going to have to throw an awful lot at it really quickly to get a handle on it," Bono said.

During her tenure in congress, Bono served on the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. She helped author the "Personal Data Notification and Protection Act," which would require companies to notify customers if a breach compromises personal information. "This was my data protection bill we wrote three years ago and we got great traction in Congress but this was still an issue that people in congress didn't understand or recognize the threat that was out there," she said.

Bono said that the hack on CENTCOM, as well as a hack in December 2014 on Sony, is a reminder that people should be vigilant in protecting their own online accounts. "This is a huge problem and it's amazing to me that Sony was the first hack that awakened people to the fact that this is potential serious harm out there," Bono said.

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