The United States has issued an indictment against 17 members of an Iranian company for alleged cyber intrusion.

🔸The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Tuesday, 27 Mordad, that it has issued a new indictment against 17 members of an Iranian company and accused them of cyber intrusion targeting universities, private companies, and federal institutions in the United States.

🔸According to the ministry’s statement, these 17 individuals and the “Mebna” institute based in Iran have, at least since 2013, carried out a coordinated campaign to infiltrate computer systems of 144 universities based in the United States, 178 foreign universities, at least 42 private-sector companies in the United States, at least 11 foreign private companies, at least five federal and state government institutions in the United States, and at least two non-governmental organizations.

🔸The U.S. Department of Justice says that many of the defendants carried out many of these attacks on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as for other Iranian government and university institutions.

🔸Nine of the 17 defendants named in this indictment had previously been charged in a seven-count indictment that was announced in 2018.

🔸John E. Eisenberg, Deputy Attorney General of the United States for National Security, said: “The superseding indictment alleges that these individuals, at the request of entities including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, infiltrated universities and other research institutions around the world, including in the United States, and stole at least 31 terabytes of information and intellectual property of unspecified value.”