THE US has indicted 17 members of the Iran-based Mabna Institute for hacking activities targeting over 300 organizations worldwide, including 144 universities in the US. Founded in 2013, the institute aimed to steal scientific resources for the Iranian government, particularly from non-Iranian institutions. The indictment, with 14 counts, states that the Mabna Institute stole over 31 terabytes of academic data and compromised around 8,000 professor email accounts.
The defendants, linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, allegedly sold the data and targeted various private and governmental organizations. The US is offering up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest of several key defendants.