The US Justice Department is charging three Iranian nationals for their alleged role in cybercriminal operations against computer systems in the United States and around the world as part of an interagency crackdown on malicious Iranian cyber activities, FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Wednesday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th September, 2022) The US Justice Department is charging three Iranian nationals for their alleged role in cybercriminal operations against computer systems in the United States and around the world as part of an interagency crackdown on malicious Iranian cyber activities, FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Wednesday.
"Today, I'm announcing the indictment of three Iranian nationals for their roles in a multi-year scheme to compromise the networks of hundreds of companies, organizations and institutions, many of which offer critical services we all rely on every day. I'm talking about healthcare facilities, power companies (and) local governments in communities across the United States and around the globe," Wray said in a video statement. "The individuals being charged today... engaged in a pattern of hacking, cyber theft and extortion largely for personal gain."
The three individuals are accused of hacking a range of organizations, including small business, non-profits and educational and religious institutions, to exfiltrate information from computers and engage in ransomware schemes, according to a Justice Department statement.
Wray said the three defendants targeted systems within Iran in addition to engaging in foreign hacking.
The indictment comes alongside new US Treasury Department sanction designations on ten Iranian persons and three entities with purported ties to malicious cyber activity conducted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as well as new $10 million State Department bounties for information on malicious foreign cyber actors.
In addition, the US government published a joint cybersecurity advisory with observed tactics, techniques and indicators of compromise for IRGC-affiliated cyber actors.
While the three charged individuals may have been hacking for personal gain, the charges reflect how criminals can flourish in the "safe haven" created for cyber actors by Iran, the statement said.
The individuals are charged with crimes including conspiring to commit computer fraud, damaging a protected computer and transmitting a demand in relation to damaging a protected computer, the statement added.
The conspiracy and demand charges carry up to five years in prison and the damage charge up to ten years, according to the statement.
