US Charges Three Iranians for Ransomware Attacks on Women’s Shelter, Businesses

A silhouetted Iranian woman walks past an anti-US wall painting on the wall of former US embassy in the capital city of Tehran, Iran, 05 September 2022. (EPA)
A silhouetted Iranian woman walks past an anti-US wall painting on the wall of former US embassy in the capital city of Tehran, Iran, 05 September 2022. (EPA)
TT
20

US Charges Three Iranians for Ransomware Attacks on Women’s Shelter, Businesses

A silhouetted Iranian woman walks past an anti-US wall painting on the wall of former US embassy in the capital city of Tehran, Iran, 05 September 2022. (EPA)
A silhouetted Iranian woman walks past an anti-US wall painting on the wall of former US embassy in the capital city of Tehran, Iran, 05 September 2022. (EPA)

Three Iranians have been charged with trying to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from organizations in the United States, Europe, Iran and Israel, including a domestic violence shelter, by hacking in to their computer systems, US officials said on Wednesday.

Other targets included local US governments, regional utilities in Mississippi and Indiana, accounting firms and a state lawyers' association, according to charges filed by the US Justice Department.

While the criminal charges do not say whether the alleged hackers worked for the Iranian government, a separate US Treasury Department statement said they were affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, an Iranian intelligence and security force.

A senior Justice Department official said the Iran government does not discourage residents from engaging in hacking, as long as it is directed outside the country.

Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The defendants, named Mansour Ahmadi, Ahmad Khatibi and Amir Hossein Nikaein, are citizens of Iran who own or are employed by private technology companies in the country.

The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on the three Iranians, as well as several other individuals and two organizations they said were part of Tehran's "malicious" cyber and ransomware activity.

The alleged hackers face little chance of being arrested, as they are believed to be living freely in Iran. But officials said the charges will make it difficult for them to travel or find work outside the country, as is the preference of many educated Iranians.

According to the charges, the three men infiltrated the computer systems of a wide range of businesses and governments between October 2020 and August 2022, encrypted their data and demanded bitcoin payments of up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Some victims, including the domestic violence shelter, opted to pay the ransom to recover their data.

Such ransomware attacks have skyrocketed over the past decade, damaging scores of US companies and other organizations around the globe.

In June last year, the Justice Department said it was elevating ransomware investigations to a similar priority as terrorism in the wake of a major, disruptive attack on a US pipeline company, which led to localized gas shortages on the US East coast.



13 Workers Kidnapped in Peru Found Dead at Peruvian Gold Mine

A gold mine in Peru (File) 
A gold mine in Peru (File) 
TT
20

13 Workers Kidnapped in Peru Found Dead at Peruvian Gold Mine

A gold mine in Peru (File) 
A gold mine in Peru (File) 

The bodies of 13 security guards were found dead inside a mine in Peru after being kidnapped days earlier in the northern area of Pataz, the mining company Poderosa said Sunday.

The victims found Sunday worked for a company that provided services to Poderosa, a major gold mining firm listed on the Lima stock exchange that has in recent months been targeted by armed groups linked to illegal mining.

“This morning, after intense search efforts, the police rescue team was able to recover the bodies of the 13 workers who were kidnapped (...) by illegal miners in collusion with criminal elements,” the company said in a statement.

Pataz, located around 900 kilometers from the capital Lima, is in a state of emergency due to escalating violence caused by a gold rush there.

Pataz mayor, Aldo Carlos Marinos said he plans to meet with the country's president, Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra, on Monday to find solutions to the security situation in the area.

Between 2013 and 2023, the Peruvian Financial Intelligence Agency said transactions related to illegal gold mining were estimated at billions.

Peru's government declared a state of emergency last month following a surge in illegal mining and criminal violence.

“The spiral of uncontrolled violence in Pataz is occurring despite the declaration of a state of emergency and the presence of a large police contingent which, unfortunately, has not been able to halt the deterioration of security conditions in the area,” the mining company said.

Peru's interior ministry said it had deployed organized crime investigators to probe the deaths, warning its agents “are fully empowered to use their firearms if the circumstances warrant it.”