DOJ secures indictment of 17 Iranians accused of 'massive' cyber theft campaign

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday unsealed an indictment charging 17 Iranian nationals with targeting American and foreign institutions via a cyber theft campaign on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The 14-count indictment charges 17 members of the Mabna Institute, an Iran-based company that has allegedly conducted a “coordinated campaign of cyber intrusions” into the computer systems of at least 144 U.S.-based universities, 178 foreign universities and 42 U.S.-based private companies, the DOJ said in a release .

The Mabna Institute, which Gholamreza Rafatnejad and Ehsan Mohammadi founded in approximately 2013, also allegedly stole information from at least 11 foreign private companies, five U.S. federal and state government agencies and two nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), according to the department.

Federal prosecutors are accusing the institute of stealing more than 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property, along with the email accounts of employees at the private companies, government agencies and NGOs.

The Iran-based company specifically conducted the university spearfishing campaign on behalf of the IRGC and contracted with Iranian governmental and private entities to perform hacking activities on their behalf, the DOJ release claimed.

A federal grand jury indicted nine of the 17 defendants on seven counts related to the case in 2018, with the latest unsealed indictment superseding that one, the department noted.

Jamie McDonald, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the charges “reveal the broader network allegedly behind a sweeping, state- campaign to steal research and intellectual property from American universities, businesses, and government institutions.”

McDonald added in the release, “More than eight years after making the original indictment public, these charges make clear that the passage of time will not deter us from identifying and pursuing those who target the United States from abroad.”

McDonald succeeded Jay Clayton, the new director of national intelligence , as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York last month.

The charges range from conspiracy to commit computer instructions, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, both of which carry 20-year max sentences. All 14 charges do not apply to each of the 17 defendants.

The State Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the location of five of the defendants: Saber Shahbazi Ballojeh, Keyvan Fayaz, Mojtaba Galekuhi, Arman Kahzadian and Behzad Mesri.