U.S. charges nine Iranians in massive hacking scheme

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration announced criminal charges and sanctions Friday against Iranians accused in a government-sponsored hacking scheme to pilfer sensitive information from hundreds of universities, private companies and U.S. government agencies.

The nine defendants, accused of working at the behest of the Iranian government-tied Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, hacked the computer systems of about 320 universities in the United States and abroad to steal expensive science and engineering research that was then used or sold for profit, prosecutors said.

They are also accused of breaking into the networks of dozens of government organizations, and companies including law firms and biotech corporations.

The Justice Department said the hackers were affiliated with an Iranian company called the Mabna Institute, which prosecutors say contracted since at least 2013 with the Iranian government to steal scientific research from other countries.

The charges “reinforce the norm that most of the civilized world accepts: nationstates should not steal intellectual property for the purpose of giving domestic industries an advantage,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said.

The accused aren’t likely to ever be prosecuted in a U.S. court since there’s no extradition treaty with Iran. But the grand jury indictment is part of the government’s “name and shame” strategy to publicly identify foreign hackers, block them from travelling without risk of arrest and put their countries on notice.

“People travel. They take vacations, they make plans with their families,” said FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich. “Having your name, face and description on a ‘wanted’ poster makes moving freely much more difficult.”

Court documents claim the Iranians broke into universities through relatively simple, but common means — tricking professors to click on compromised links.