U.S. charges 17 Iranians in hacking campaign tied to $6 million bitcoin extortion attempt

The U.S. Department of Justice said Tuesday that 17 Iranian nationals have been charged over an alleged long-running cyber campaign tied to the Mabna Institute, a group prosecutors say worked on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian government and university clients. The case spans attacks on hundreds of U.S. and international universities, dozens of companies, and at least five state and federal agencies. Part of the indictment revisits the previously charged HBO hack involving Behzad Mesri, who prosecutors said stole proprietary data from the entertainment company and then tried to extort roughly $6 million in bitcoin. Five additional defendants — Saeid Houshyar, Manouchehr Hashemloo, Keyvan Fayaz, Saber Shahbazi Ballojeh, and Arman Kahzadian — were described as directly involved in that breach. The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $10 million for information on the defendants’ whereabouts. Prosecutors also said the stolen research was resold through Megapaper.ir and Gigapaper.ir, with the latter renting compromised professor credentials to Iranian users. U.S. institutions had spent about $3.4 billion to acquire the stolen material, while separate victims incurred more than $20 million in remediation costs.