The U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday that it has indicted 17 Iranian nationals suspected of carrying out a coordinated, large-scale cyberattack. According to the announcement, members of the Iranian institute “Mabna,” backed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, worked to steal sensitive information from American and international organizations.
1+The campaign, which began in 2013 and continued through December 2017, involved the theft of over 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property, valued at approximately $3.4 billion. The attack targeted computer systems at 144 American universities, 42 private companies, and at least five U.S. government agencies. James C. Brinkel Jr., FBI assistant director, described the attacks as “a serious threat to our national security.”
The “Mabna” Institute directed its operations against accounts of roughly 100,000 academics worldwide, successfully breaching about 8,000 email accounts of professors at 144 U.S. universities and 178 additional academic institutions around the world. The Justice Department even offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the capture of five of the accused hackers.
1+Jaimie McDonald, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, emphasized that cyber operations have become “a central tool of national power” and warned of the dangerous impact of cyberattacks on American security and the economy. The “Mabna” Institute was established in 2013 with the goal of helping Iranian academic organizations “steal access to non-Iranian scientific resources.”