Microsoft Says Iranians Hacked France's Charlie Hebdo

FILE PHOTO: An Iran's flag is seen as the Eiffel Tower lit up with the slogan "#StopExecutionsInIran" in support of Iranians, in Paris, France, January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An Iran's flag is seen as the Eiffel Tower lit up with the slogan "#StopExecutionsInIran" in support of Iranians, in Paris, France, January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
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Microsoft Says Iranians Hacked France's Charlie Hebdo

FILE PHOTO: An Iran's flag is seen as the Eiffel Tower lit up with the slogan "#StopExecutionsInIran" in support of Iranians, in Paris, France, January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An Iran's flag is seen as the Eiffel Tower lit up with the slogan "#StopExecutionsInIran" in support of Iranians, in Paris, France, January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

US computing giant Microsoft said Friday that it had identified Iranian state actors as those behind the recent cyberattack on French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Clint Watts, the general manager of Microsoft's Digital Threat Analysis Center, said that the hackers, who called themselves "Holy Souls," were Iranian cybersecurity firm Emennet Pasargad, AFP reported.

In early January Holy Souls announced they had obtained the personal information of more than 200,000 Charlie Hebdo customers, and published a sample of the data as proof.

The cyberattack came after Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in a special edition to mark the anniversary of the 2015 attack on its Paris offices that left 12 dead.

Iran issued an official warning to France over the "insulting and indecent" cartoons.

Emennet Pasargad was the employer of two Iranians, Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi and Sajjad Kashian, who were indicted by the United States Justice Department in November 2021.

They allegedly conducted a cyber campaign "to intimidate and influence American voters, and otherwise undermine voter confidence and sow discord" during the 2020 US presidential election.

Kazemi and Kashian allegedly obtained confidential voter information and sent menacing emails, pushing out false information to influence both Democratic and Republican voters, and attempted to hack into state voting-related websites, the department said.

The Charlie Hebdo hackers, whose operation Microsoft dubbed "Neptunium", offered the stolen subscriber database for sale online for 20 bitcoin, currently about $460,000, Microsoft said.

"Whatever one may think of Charlie Hebdo's editorial choices, the release of personally identifiable information about tens of thousands of its customers constitutes a grave threat," Microsoft said.



EU Sanctions Iranian Individuals Accused of Targeting Dissidents

European Union flags fly outside the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
European Union flags fly outside the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
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EU Sanctions Iranian Individuals Accused of Targeting Dissidents

European Union flags fly outside the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
European Union flags fly outside the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium November 8, 2023. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

The EU has imposed sanctions on eight people and one entity responsible for the targeting of Iranian dissidents for assassination on behalf of Iran's government, the European Council said in a statement on Tuesday.

The sanctions, over what it called "serious human rights violations" and "transnational repression", included asset freezes and travel bans, the council said.

The Council listed the Zindashti Network, which it said was a criminal group uconnected to the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security that has carried out numerous acts of transnational repression, including assassinations of Iranian dissidents, Reuters reported.

It also included the Zindashti Network's boss Naji Ibrahim Sharifi-Zindashti - who it said was an Iranian narcotics trafficker and organised crime boss - and some of his associates. Zindashti and his network have previously been sanctioned by the United States.

The Council, the European Union's governing body, is also targeting Mohammed Ansari, the leader of the Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force Unit 840, who it said ordered the assassination of journalists critical of the Iran.

It said that the listings confirmed the EU’s concerns about transnational repression by Iranian state bodies through the use of proxy agents, in particular involving criminals and organised crime networks targeting dissidents and human rights defenders across the world, including on EU territory.