US charges 9 Iranians in hacking scheme

Washington, March 23 

The Justice Department today announced charges against nine Iranians in a government-sponsored hacking scheme that pilfered sensitive information from hundreds of universities, private companies and government agencies.

The Iranian defendants are accused of working at the behest of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to steal large quantities of academic data from hundreds of universities in the United States and abroad as well as email accounts belonging to employees of government agencies and private companies.

Prosecutors say the defendants were affiliated with the Mabna Institute, an Iranian company that since at least 2013 has contracted with the Iranian government to conduct hacking.

The defendants are unlikely to ever be prosecuted in an American courtroom since there’s no extradition treaty with Iran. But the case is part of the government’s “name and shame” strategy to publicly identify foreign hackers and put their countries on notice.

Also today, the Treasury Department designated the Mabna Institute and the nine Iranians for sanctions.

“Today, not only are we publicly identifying the foreign hackers who committed these malicious cyber intrusions, but we are also sending a powerful message to their backers,” FBI Director said. — AP