Iran-based hackers indicted for cyberattack

WASHINGTON — A US grand jury indicted two Iranian nationals over claims they carried out a March ransomware attack against the city of Atlanta. Faramarz Shahi Savandi and Mohammed Mehdi Shah Mansouri used ransomware known as SamSam to infect about 3,789 servers and workstations in Atlanta, the Justice department said Wednesday. The cyberattack took place last March 10-22. During the assault, the hackers encrypted “vital city computer systems” and demanded ransom, paid in Bitcoin, to restore access to the files, according to the release. The two men, who operated from Iran, were also indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Newark, New Jersey, for a “34-month-long international computer hacking and extortion scheme,” the department said. —