US authorities expanded its prosecution of a sprawling Iranian hacking network Tuesday, bringing to 17 the number of indicted suspects for an alleged campaign against universities, companies, and government agencies.
The Department of Justice unveiled a new indictment targeting eight additional individuals, with nine of the 17 defendants having already been indicted in 2018.
Prosecutors are offering a $10 million reward for information leading to the prosecution of five of them, identified as Behzad Mesri, Mojtaba Galekuhi, Arman Kahzadian, Keyvan Fayaz, and Saber Shahbazi Ballojeh.
All are linked to the Mabna Institute, an organization based in Iran that is said to have carried out hacking operations on behalf of the Iranian government and the Revolutionary Guards, prosecutors said.
The campaign, carried out mainly between 2013 and 2017, was aimed in particular at stealing scientific data and intellectual property.
The expanded case now covers the hacking of 144 US universities and 178 foreign universities, as well as at least 42 US companies, 11 foreign firms, five US government agencies, and two NGOs.
The hackers are said to have targeted more than 100,000 accounts belonging to professors, the Justice Department said.
They are believed to have stolen some 31.5 terabytes of data, including scientific articles, dissertations and other research work.
"More than eight years after making the original indictment public, these charges make clear that the passage of time will not deter us from identifying and pursuing those who target the United States from abroad," said US Attorney Jamie McDonald for the Southern District of New York.
The US Treasury announced in 2018 that it had imposed sanctions on the nine individuals initially indicted, as well as on a tenth suspect who was allegedly involved in an attempted extortion case against HBO, from which he had stolen the script of an unaired episode of the hit series "Game of Thrones."
