Key facts
- The U.S. Department of Justice unsealed new and updated charges against 17 individuals.
- The individuals are accused of working with the Mabna Institute, an Iranian company.
- The alleged hacking campaigns targeted U.S. universities, companies, and government agencies.
- The Mabna Institute allegedly conducted these operations on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
- A $10 million reward is offered for information on several of the accused individuals.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that it has unsealed new and updated charges against 17 individuals accused of working with an Iranian company, the Mabna Institute, to conduct hacking and data theft. These alleged campaigns targeted hundreds of U.S. and international universities, dozens of U.S. companies, and at least five U.S. state and federal government agencies.
The DOJ stated that the Mabna Institute carried out these hacking operations on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian government and university clients. A previous indictment in March 2018 had already charged nine of these individuals for a hacking campaign that targeted entities including the U.S. Labor Department and the United Nations.
U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald described the charges as revealing "the broader network allegedly behind a sweeping, state-sponsored campaign to steal research and intellectual property from American universities, businesses, and government institutions." The State Department's Rewards for Justice program has offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the location of several of the individuals named in the new charges.
According to the DOJ, the Mabna Institute's activities, spanning from at least 2013 through 2017, involved targeting over 100,000 accounts of professors worldwide, with successful penetration of approximately 8,000 professor email accounts across 144 U.S. universities and 178 universities in other countries.