CBS News crime and public safety producer Anna Schecter joins "CBS Mornings Plus" to explain the implications of a new Department of Homeland Security warning about a heightened threat environment across the U.S.

The Department of Homeland Security has released a bulletin alerting Americans to a heightened threat environment across the country. The warning points to the risk of cyberattacks, particularly from pro-Iranian hacktivists targeting government officials, defense contractors, and critical infrastructure such as power grids and water systems. 

While there is no current threat of missile attacks on US soil, the bulletin urges vigilance around soft targets, including houses of worship and diplomatic sites. In response, law enforcement agencies in major cities have increased their presence and are deploying special teams to deter potential threats and reassure the public.

What DHS's new threat bulletin means for Americans

Amid the concern over the retaliation, the Department of Homeland Security yesterday issued a bulletin warning of a heightened threat environment across the United States. Anna Schechter, senior coordinating producer in our Crime and Public Safety Unit, joins us now to talk more about that. Anna, good morning. Good morning. So what could a potential Iranian retaliatory attack or strike against the United States look like? Well, it could be a cyber attack, for example. And so that's where pro-Iran hacktivists who are working at the behest of the IRGC, they're sending phishing emails to U.S. officials all the way up to the White House, potentially to companies that have defense contracts with the U.S. government. They might be targeting power grid, that's of concern, water systems. So everybody should be on heightened alert if you have a role like that. In the past, in fact, IRGC-linked actors have infiltrated the personal emails of the Trump campaign, the Department of Justice filed charges. So there is a long history of this. And right now, the intelligence community is really on heightened alert, particularly after the Saturday night strike. There's a lot of concern about shorter range missiles from Iran reaching U.S. bases abroad. Yes. And that's a fair and real concern. Sure. What about Americans here at home? How concerned should they be that there could be something violent that reaches us? Well, a missile, Iran does not have the capabilities to shoot a missile to land in the homeland on U.S. soil. So Americans should not be worried about that. But there are other things that the Department of Homeland Security is telling the public to be concerned about. So beyond cyber, it's, you know, houses of worship, diplomatic sites, particularly Israeli diplomatic sites, but also synagogues, mosques. There is an increased presence of law enforcement, for example, in New York City, they've deployed special teams with helmets, tactical vests, long guns as a deterrent to have a sort of more physical presence. So that's in the works here on the ground. Because of the terror threat. That's right. In fact, many municipalities, mayors of big cities have issued warnings to citizens. I mean, here in New York, you're talking about soft targets ranging from the subways to where we are right here in Times Square. How concerned are police about that? They're very concerned. And so they are what they call hardening soft targets. And for that reason, they are deploying these special teams. A lot of resources are going into this. So on the ground, you have the, you'll have more of a presence. Sometimes that can actually be scary for people walking around, seeing more police officers thinking, hey, wait, is something going on here? But it's really meant as reassurance and deterrence. That's what my sources are telling me. All right, Anna. Thank you so much.

Hurricane Erin will bring dangerously rough surf to parts of the U.S. East Coast. Over the weekend, Erin's outer bands lashed Puerto Rico with up to 7 inches of rain and flooding parts of the island.

East Coast of the United States

Erin expected to bring dangerous conditions to U.S. East Coast

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Jerusalem

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San Juan

Hurricane Erin 'rapidly intensifies' to a Category 5

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London

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Breakdown