THE United States has announced a reward of up to $10 million for actionable intelligence on Amir Yaryab, described by American authorities as a senior IRGC cyber commander and head of the IRGC’s cyber operations command. The Rewards for Justice programme states Yaryab oversees the Shahid Hemmat and Shahid Shushtari units and exercise direct control over IRGC-affiliated groups including CyberAv3ngers, Dadeh Afzar Arman and Mehrsam Andisheh Saz Nik.
The article links these groups to campaigns against defence contractors, media outlets, shipping firms, hospitality networks, airlines, energy grids, financial institutions and telecoms across the US, Europe and the Middle East.
The piece recounts allegations that the CyberAv3ngers group, under Yaryab’s direction, has conducted notable intrusions into industrial control hardware. It cites a joint investigative report describing how, between November 2023 and January 2024, at least 75 Unitronics devices across the United States were compromised, with 34 of those systems involved in water treatment facilities. The attackers allegedly altered controller logic, locked out remote operators, and reconfigured equipment parameters.
The article also notes a strong emphasis on the Water sector as a critical target and references a publicly reported vulnerability in Google Chrome, listing CVE-2026-85046 (Type confusion in V8) with the Chrome version prior to 152.0.7977.82 as an example of the kinds of exploits associated with the broader threat landscape.
In line with the Rewards for Justice programme, the US says the bounty applies to intelligence identifying or locating individuals acting under foreign state direction while engaging in malicious cyber operations against American critical infrastructure.