US Charges 17 in Iran-Linked Mabna Hack; $10M Rewards
The U.S. charged 17 members of Iran-based Mabna Institute with hacking hundreds of universities, companies and agencies and offers up to $10 million for five suspects.
The Justice Department this week filed a 14-count superseding indictment charging 17 members of the Iran-based Mabna Institute with years of cyber intrusions targeting research institutions, companies and government agencies.
The indictment says Mabna was founded in 2013 to obtain non-Iranian scientific resources by unlawful means. Investigators allege intrusions into 144 U.S. universities and 178 foreign institutions, targeting more than 100,000 professors and compromising roughly 8,000 professor email accounts. Authorities estimate the operation extracted more than 31 terabytes of academic data across engineering, medical, technology and other research fields.
The filing alleges the defendants acted on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and names founders Gholamreza Rafatnejad and Ehsan Mohammadi. The indictment lists other affiliates, including Abdollah Karima and Mostafa Sadeghi, among those charged.
Prosecutors allege the group used stolen credentials to access professor accounts and move documents off victim systems. The campaign is linked in the filing to intrusions at 42 U.S. companies, 11 foreign companies, five U.S. government agencies and at least two non-governmental organizations. The indictment ties online services Megapaper and Gigapaper to Abdollah Karima and accuses the group of attempting to extort $6 million from the entertainment company HBO.
Through the State Department’s Rewards for Justice program, authorities offer up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of five individuals named in the indictment: Behzad Mesri (also known as Skote Vahshat), Mojtaba Galekuhi, Arman Kahzadian, Keyvan Fayaz (aliases Achilles, The Joker and bc.monster) and Saber Shahbazi Ballojeh. The Justice Department and other agencies are publicizing the rewards to assist in locating suspects believed to be overseas.
Federal prosecutors will pursue the defendants in U.S. courts and intend to rely on international cooperation and reward tips to locate and extradite suspects where possible.
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