The US Department of Justice has charged 17 Iranian nationals for allegedly conducting a years-long "coordinated campaign" of cyber attacks to steal data from US organizations. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing BBC News.
According to the DoJ, members of the Iran-based Mabna Institute targeted the computer systems of 144 American universities and 42 private sector firms since at least 2013. The group is alleged to have stolen more than 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property worth approximately $3.4bn over the course of the "massive" campaign.
FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C Barnacle, Jr described the coordinated cyber attacks as "a serious threat to our national security".
Many of the attacks were conducted on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the DoJ said in a statement, as well as for "other Iranian government and university clients". Barnacle said: "Backed by the IRGC, this operation reflects a broader, organised effort to target US institutions and global partners."
The DoJ said Mabna had targeted the accounts of 100,000 academics around the world, and successfully compromised 8,000 professor email accounts at 144 US-based universities and another 178 academic institutions internationally. The campaign started in approximately 2013 and continued until at least December 2017.
The department also announced it was offering a $10m reward for information leading to the location of five of the alleged hackers-for-hire who have been charged. US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jamie McDonald said cyber operations have "become a central instrument of national power", warning of the dangerous impact cyber attacks have on US security and the economy.
In addition to academic institutions, Mabna is alleged to have targeted and compromised employee email accounts from at least five US federal and state government agencies. At least 42 US-based private companies and 11 foreign companies based in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden and the UK were also targeted.
The Mabna Institute was founded in 2013 to assist Iranian academic organisations in "stealing access to non-Iranian scientific resources", according to the DoJ. Nine of the 17 members charged on Tuesday were previously charged in a seven-count indictment in March 2018.