US charged 17 Iranians in cyber campaign targeting 144 universities
What's new: Prosecutors put the theft at 31 terabytes of data worth about $3.4 billion and offered a $10 million reward for five suspects.
The Justice Department unsealed new and updated charges against 17 Iranians it linked to the Mabna Institute, alleging the group ran a yearslong hacking and data-theft campaign on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian clients. Prosecutors said the operation targeted 144 US universities, 178 universities in other countries, 42 US companies, 11 foreign companies and at least five US state and federal agencies between 2013 and 2017. Authorities said the hackers sought access to more than 100,000 academic accounts and successfully broke into about 8,000 professor email accounts. The Justice Department said the campaign stole 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property valued at roughly $3.4 billion.