9 Iranian hackers charged by Justice Department for 'malicious' worldwide cyberattack

The Department of Justice has charged nine Iranians in a major hacking conspiracy that targeted American universities and government agencies. The Trump administration on Friday announced criminal indictments against the alleged hackers, who were involved in "massive, coordinated cyberintrusions" at the behest of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an intelligence-gathering arm of the Iranian government.

Also Friday, the Treasury Department announced sanctions against 10 Iranians, in tandem with the DOJ's indictments. Nine of the sanctioned individuals were the nine indicted Friday, who are "leaders, contractors, associates hackers-for-hire or affiliates" of the Mabna Institute, an Iranian company accused of working with Tehran to steal more than 31 terabytes of intellectual property and data in what officials called a "significant, malicious" attack. The 10th individual was indicted in November for involvement in hacking HBO computer servers.

The stolen data was "one of the largest state-sponsored hacking campaigns" ever, officials said, affecting at least 300 universities worldwide, 144 of which were in the United States. The Department of Labor, the United Nations, and the states of Hawaii and Indiana were also targeted, a DOJ announcement stated.

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The revealed cyberattacks "should send a message around the world about Iran's continued deceptive practices," said Sigal Mandelker, the Treasury Department's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, "but it should come as no surprise."

Those sanctioned will have American assets frozen and will be blocked from traveling to more than 100 countries at risk of being extradited to the U.S. Read more at The Washington Post.