Trump administration hits Iranian hacker network with sanctions, indictments in vast global campaign
Source: The Washington Post
By Ellen Nakashima and Karen DeYoung March 23 at 10:00 AM
The Trump administration on Friday announced sanctions and criminal indictments against an Iranian hacker network it said was involved in one of the largest state-sponsored hacking campaigns ever prosecuted by the United States, targeting hundreds of U.S. and foreign universities, as well as dozens of U.S. companies and government agencies, and the United Nations.
None of the alleged hackers were direct employees of the Iranian government, but all worked at the behest of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, officials said. While not the first such punishments imposed on Iran for malicious cyber acts, the new measures address more extensive Iranian efforts than previously alleged.
Nine of 10 named individuals were connected to the Mabna Institute, a Shiraz-based tech firm that the Justice Department alleged hacks on behalf of Iranian universities and the IRGC. The institute conducted massive, coordinated intrusions into the computer systems of at least 144 U.S. universities and 176 foreign universities in 21 countries, including Britain and Canada, officials said.
They stole more than 31 terabytes of data and intellectual property the rough equivalent of three Libraries of Congress from their victims, prosecutors alleged. Much of it ended up in the hands of the IRGC, which has frequently been accused of stealing information to further its own research and development of weaponry. The Corps is the division of Irans security forces charged with overseeing Iranian proxy forces abroad and is under the direct control of the countrys religious leaders.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-hits-iranian-hacker-network-with-sanctions-indictments-in-vast-global-campaign/2018/03/23/4481721c-2e16-11e8-8688-e053ba58f1e4_story.html
Ramsey Barner
(349 posts)does not bode well for world peace.
pangaia
(24,324 posts)Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Saw the headline...immediately thought Bolton.
Botany
(70,556 posts)No doubt the Trump admin. will file sanctions against that country.
Clarity2
(1,009 posts)that hacked our elections, and are regularly hacking our INFRASTRUCTURE?!
No, no indictments for those state sponsored hackers. They get a big smooch from Trump.
PaulX2
(2,032 posts)I mean c'mon.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)Lock up the traitors
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Even though "sanction" are apparently in place for the 13, what about the government that funded and permitted it, albeit indirectly?
Clarity2
(1,009 posts)Called in another favor to the NY FBI office. 🙄
This is setting up the stage....boy they work fast.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,806 posts)and follows up on investigations started and sanctions imposed by Obama's administration. What I think it does do is place the FBI (and Rosenstein) in a good light. With Iran as the designated bad guy and all this work being done against it, how can Trump keep pissing on the FBI?
elleng
(131,063 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,806 posts)"The administration used a cyber sanction authority created by its predecessor, which first used the tool against Russian actors in December 2016 for interfering in the election. The administration used it in sanctioning the Russians last week.
In March 2016, the Justice Department unsealed an indictment against seven Iranian individuals working for two Iran-based computer companies, which conducted denial-of-service computer attacks against U.S. banks in 2012. Treasury followed up with sanctions."
Javaman
(62,532 posts)Saudis financed 9/11 but George w moron* hits Iraq instead.
This time....
Russia hacks our election and the orange asshole goes after Iran