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US Charges 9 Iranians With Massive Cyberattack Against Hundreds of
Universities

by Masood Farivar

   A federal grand jury in New York has indicted nine Iranians for
   carrying out a years-long campaign to steal research and other
   proprietary data from hundreds of American and foreign research
   universities, private companies and government institutions, the
   Justice Department announced on Friday.

   According to an indictment unsealed on Friday, the hackers worked on
   behalf of the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and began their
   hacking campaign in 2013.

   The suspects worked for Mabna Institute, an organization founded by two
   of the hackers with the aim of helping Iranian universities gain access
   to scientific research.

   Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the hackers penetrated the
   computer systems of 320 universities in 22 countries, including 144
   American universities, stealing research that cost the schools about
   $3.4 billion.
   "Academic institutions are prime targets for foreign cyber criminals,"
   Rosenstein said at a press conference. "Universities can thrive as
   marketplaces of ideas and engines of research and development only if
   their work is protected from theft."
   Among other institutions targeted by the hackers were 47 U.S. and
   foreign private companies, the U.S. Labor Department, the Federal
   Energy Regulatory Commissions, the states of Hawaii and Indiana and the
   United Nations, officials said.
   The stolen information was used by Iran's Revolutionary Guards or sold
   in Iran, according to Rosenstein.
   The alleged hackers remain at large.
   The U.S. Treasury Department announced Friday that it was imposing
   sanctions on the Mabna Institute and 10 Iranian individuals in
   connection with the cyber campaign.
   The department already has sanctioned the Revolutionary Guards for
   supporting terrorism.