U.S. DOJ charges 17 Iranians in massive cyber espionage campaign

The U.S. Department of Justice has unsealed a 14-count indictment against 17 members of the Iran-based Mabna Institute, accusing them of a massive cyber espionage campaign spanning from 2013 to at least 2017. The group allegedly operated on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other Iranian government and university clients to steal over 31.5TB of research data and intellectual property.

The campaign targeted more than 100,000 professor accounts and compromised approximately 8,000 academic email accounts globally. Victims included 144 U.S. universities and 178 international institutions across countries such as Canada, China, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The attackers used spearphishing to gain access to academic journals, dissertations, and research papers across various scientific and technical fields.

In addition to academic theft, the indictment details efforts to extort HBO for $6 million in Bitcoin. The stolen research was reportedly resold through websites such as Megapaper.ir and Gigapaper.ir, which allowed Iranian customers to access hijacked professor logins to enter foreign university libraries. The State Department’s Rewards for Justice program is offering up to $10 million for information leading to the location of the defendants.