Feb 28, 2026, 10:16 PM

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Updated

Terrorism expert warns that the United States-Israel's military action against Iran could raise security concerns across New York City.

The NYPD announced Saturday that is ramping up patrols across the city out of an abundance of caution.

President of Protective Countermeasures Inc. Sal Lifrieri, says houses of worship are traditionally among the most vulnerable sites during periods of global unrest.

“I think the traditionally we see the houses of worship are across the board...the synagogues, virtually every, every religious institution is covered under the abundance of caution,” Lifrieri said.

When asked how concerned New Yorkers should be and how real the risk of retaliation on U.S. soil may be, Lifrieri said it is an ongoing concern.

“I think it’s something that we’ve always been concerned about over the years and post-911. It’s always something that we’re worried about,” he said.

Lifrieri said the threat landscape could include cyberattacks as well as smaller localized attacks.

“The cyber is clearly a key issue with Iranians. They have a very good strong capability. U.S. secret services put out a report talking about the things that we could do to safeguard ourselves. But then on the flip side of it, you also have the smaller localized attacks where you could have small individual cells conducting multiple simultaneous attacks,” Lifrieri said.

He said intelligence sharing between federal and local law enforcement agencies is critical in times of global unrest.

“The the good news is post-911, we’ve really learned a lot of great lessons," Lifreri said. "The current leadership with the FBI has really taken a strong stand on trying to get local law enforcement involved with them. So years ago where you had that break between the agencies, today you got a lot better cooperation and it’s critical because what could be happening, somebody that they could be looking at in, let’s say in New Jersey, could be planning an attack in New York. There’s no longer a hard wall between the two."

Authorities have not announced any specific or credible threats to New York City.