Trump administration charges Iranians for international cyber theft

The US Department of Justice building is seen in Washington, US, in this file photo. (Reuters)

WASHINGTON: The Trump administration on Friday charged nine Iranians and an Iranian company with attempting to hack into hundreds of US and international universities, dozens of companies and parts of the US government on behalf of the Iranian government.
The cyber attack pilfered more than 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property from 144 US universities and 176 universities in 21 foreign countries, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.
The US Treasury Department said on its website that it was placing sanctions on those accused and the Mabna Institute, a company described by US prosecutors as designed to help Iranian research organizations steal information.
The nine defendants, accused of working at the behest of the Iranian government-tied Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, hacked the computer systems of about 320 universities in the United States and abroad to steal expensive research that was then used or sold for profit, prosecutors said.
The hackers also are accused of breaking into the networks of dozens of government organizations, such as the Department of Labor and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and companies, including law firms and biotechnology corporations.
The Justice Department said the hackers were affiliated with an Iranian company called the Mabna Institute, which prosecutors say contracted since at least 2013 with the Iranian government to steal scientific research from other countries.
“By bringing these criminal charges, we reinforce the norm that most of the civilized world accepts: nation-states should not steal intellectual property for the purpose of giving domestic industries an advantage,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in announcing the charges.
The defendants are unlikely to ever be prosecuted in an American courtroom since there’s no extradition treaty with Iran. But the grand jury indictment — filed in federal court in Manhattan — is part of the government’s “name and shame” strategy to publicly identify foreign hackers, block them from traveling without risk of arrest and put their countries on notice.
“People travel. They take vacations, they make plans with their families,” said FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich. “Having your name, face and description on a ‘wanted’ poster makes moving freely much more difficult.”