Skip to main content

U.S. Charges Iranians For Global Cyber Attacks

The attack pilfered more than 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property.
                  U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein speaks at a news conference with other law enforcement officials at the Justice D
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Friday charged nine Iranians and an Iranian company with attempting to hack into hundreds of U.S. and international universities, dozens of companies and parts of the U.S. government on behalf of the Tehran government.
The cyber attack pilfered more than 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property from 144 U.S. universities and 176 universities in 21 foreign countries, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.
The U.S. Treasury Department said on its website that it was placing sanctions on those accused and the Mabna Institute, a company described by U.S. prosecutors as designed to help Iranian research organizations steal information.
“These defendants are now fugitives of justice,” U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said at a press conference, warning that they may face extradition in more than 100 countries if they travel outside of Iran.
The action is the fourth time in the past few months that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has blamed a foreign government for major cyber attacks, a practice that was relatively rare under the Obama administration.
The campaign targeted the email accounts of more than 100,000 professors worldwide and compromised about 8,000 of them, the Justice Department said, describing the conspiracy as one of the largest state-sponsored hacking sprees prosecuted.
Hackers also targeted the U.S. Labor Department, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the United Nations, prosecutors said.
Last week, the administration accused the Russian government of cyber attacks stretching back at least two years that targeted the U.S. power grid. Washington imposed new sanctions on 19 Russians and five groups, including Moscow’s intelligence services, for meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and other cyber attacks.
The Obama administration in 2016 indicted seven Iranians for distributed-denial-of-service attacks on dozens of U.S. banks and for trying to shut down a New York dam. Those hackers were also accused of working on behalf of Iran’s government.
On Friday, the Treasury department named the Iran-based Mabna Institute and Behzad Mesri, also known as “Skote Vahshat,” who was charged in 2017 with hacking cable TV network HBO.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

192,000 Americans killed by COVID-19, to hit 200,000 in 7 days

A COVID-19 patients in the US being stretchered to the hospital COVID-19 pandemic has now killed 192,012 Americans, with fresh 984 deaths by Friday night, according to the tracking by worldometers.info. The number of confirmed infections has also hit 6,385,367. Over 50,000 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, as the Trump administration appeared to be clueless in stemming the virus. With the daily death rate of about 1,100, America’s fatality number will reach over 200,000 in another 7 days. The numbers make America unassailably the grim centre of the world, leading in both cases and deaths. Brazil is second in both virus cases and deaths toll. The South American country has recorded 4,091,801 cases and 125,584 deaths. On Friday, it posted comparative figures to America’s, with 855 deaths and over 45,500 new cases. India is playing catch-up with Brazil,as the two countries are now almost neck and neck in confirmed virus cases. After reporting another world record 87,115 new ca...
Post a Comment
Read more

Chinese Police Now Kitted With Sunglasses That Work Like Cameras

Chinese policewoman with surveillance sunglasses Police in China have begun using surveillance sunglasses equipped with facial recognition technology to identify suspected criminals, the first in the world. The glasses are connected to an internal database of suspects, meaning officers can quickly scan crowds while looking for fugitives. But critics fear the technology will give even more power to the government. The sunglasses have already helped police capture seven suspects, according to Chinese state media. Police used the new equipment at a busy train station in the central city of Zhengzhou to identify the suspects. The seven people who were apprehended are accused of crimes ranging from hit-and-runs to human trafficking. Police also identified 26 people who were using fake IDs, the ruling communist party’s People’s Daily newspaper reported. The technology allows police officers to take a photograph of a suspicious individual and then compare it to pictures stored ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A white man fined for sending banana to a black customer in London

  A 20-year-old man has been fined for sending banana to a black customer in a Whetherspoon pub in south-east London.   Louie Kincella appeared at Bexley Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, where he was found guilty of a racially aggravated offence under the Public Order Act.   Kincella from Mottingham, was fined £600. He was also ordered to pay court costs of £620 and a victim surcharge of £60 following the hearing.   The black customer, Mark D'arcy-Smith was drinking with a friend at The Richmal Crompton in Bromley, south-east London, when the fruit was delivered to his table.   Kincella ordered the 30p banana using the pub chain's app - which allows customers to buy food and drink and have it delivered to a table - during a visit in November last year.   Speaking to BBC earlier, Mr D'arcy said he was left feeling "upset, shocked and scared" when it arrived and reported what had happened to the Met.   Kincella was subsequently arrested on 17 January and...
Post a Comment
Read more