US Indicts 17 Iranians Over Years
US unsealed superseding indictment charging 17 Mabna Institute Iranians for IRGC-linked espionage stealing 31TB from universities, companies, and government agencies.
The Justice Department unsealed a superseding indictment charging 17 members of the Iran-based Mabna Institute, which conducted hacking campaigns since at least 2013 on behalf of the IRGC and other Iranian clients. The group compromised 144 US and 178 foreign universities, at least 42 US companies, and multiple government agencies, stealing over 31 terabytes of academic data and IP plus employee email inboxes. Hackers breached roughly 8,000 of 100,000 targeted professor accounts across 24 countries, selling stolen research through Megapaper.ir and Gigapaper.ir. Behzad Mesri, tied to the HBO breach and $6 million Bitcoin extortion, is among eight new defendants, and five defendants carry State Department Rewards for Justice bounties up to $10 million.
- Eight new defendants added to the original March 2018 indictment of the Mabna Institute
- Password spray attacks caused victims over $20 million in investigation and cleanup costs
- Stolen academic credentials used to access research papers, theses, and paid journals
- Campaign targeted professor accounts across roughly 24 countries worldwide
- ATT&CK
- T1110.003 Password SprayingT1078 Valid AccountsT1213.002 Extraction from Information RepositoriesT1657 Financial Theft
- Products
- Megapaper.irGigapaper.ir
- Organizations
- Security Affairs
From the original article
3 min read at securityaffairs.com
The US charged 17 Iranians over a years-long hacking campaign that stole 31TB from universities, companies and government agencies worldwide. Eight years after the original indictment first went public, US prosecutors just added eight more names to the list.
By @securityaffairs · securityaffairs.com
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