US Indicts 17 Iranians in 2013‑2017 Cyber‑Theft Campaign

Seventeen Iranian nationals have been formally charged for conducting a state‑sponsored, years‑long cyber‑campaign that targeted American universities and private firms from 2013 to at least 2017.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) says the Mabna Institute, an Iranian group, was behind attacks on 144 U.S. universities and 42 private-sector companies.

According to the DoJ, the group stole more than 31 TB of academic data and intellectual property estimated at $3.4 bn (≈ £2.5 bn). The attackers gained access to 8,000 professor email accounts at U.S. institutions and compromised accounts of 100,000 academics worldwide.

“A serious threat to our national security,” FBI Assistant Director James C. Barnacle, Jr. said, describing the attacks as part of a coordinated effort backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In addition to academia, the alleged hackers targeted email accounts of employees at five U.S. federal and state agencies and at foreign companies in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The DoJ is offering a $10 m reward for information that leads to locating five of the indicted hackers‑for‑hire.

Deputy U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jamie McDonald warned that cyber operations are becoming “a central instrument of national power,” underscoring their dangerous impact on national security and the economy.

Nine of the 17 charged individuals were previously indicted on seven counts in March 2018.

For more on related cyber‑security threats, see our pieces on Iran’s cyber‑attacks and the possibility of Iranian hacks on water systems across U.S. states.