DOJ unseals expanded charges against 17 in Iran-backed hacking campaign
By AJ Vicens
DETROIT, Aug 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday unsealed expanded charges against 17 people it says were tied to an Iranian cyber campaign that stole research and personal data from universities, companies and government agencies across the United States and abroad.
The defendants worked with the Mabna Institute, an Iranian firm that prosecutors said carried out hacking operations on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other state and academic clients. The operation targeted hundreds of universities worldwide, dozens of U.S. companies and at least five U.S. state and federal agencies, according to the DOJ.
The new indictment expands a case first brought in March 2018, when nine of the same defendants were charged in connection with intrusions into networks at the U.S. Labor Department, the United Nations, and computer systems in Hawaii and Indiana. Tuesday's charges make public the full scope of an alleged conspiracy that investigators say stretched from Tehran to campuses and corporate offices around the world.
"These charges reveal the broader network allegedly behind a sweeping, state-sponsored campaign to steal research and intellectual property from American universities, businesses, and government institutions," Jamie McDonald, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.
According to the DOJ, the Mabna Institute targeted more than 100,000 accounts of professors globally between 2013 and 2017, successfully breaking into roughly 8,000 faculty email accounts at 144 U.S. universities and 178 institutions abroad. Much of the stolen data is believed to have been funneled back to Iranian government agencies and academic partners.
The case underscores the expanding threat of state-backed cyber espionage, particularly against universities, where open networks and sprawling research environments make institutions an appealing target for foreign intelligence operations. It also highlights how long such campaigns can go undetected, with the earliest intrusions alleged to have begun more than a decade ago.
Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and contact information for the Mabna Institute was not immediately available.
Separately, the State Department's Rewards for Justice program announced a $10 million reward on Tuesday for information leading to the location of several people named in the charges.
(Reporting by AJ Vicens in Detroit; Editing by Edmund Klamann)