Iranian hackers hit U.S. biotech company

A hacking organization working on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an Iranian government intelligence and military organization, compromised the email accounts of a biotech company, according to an indictment that was unsealed on March 23. The U.S. government indicted nine Iranian citizens, charging them with a range of computer intrusion and fraud offenses. The indictment alleges that the Iranian defendants were “leaders, contractors, associates, hackers for hire, and affiliates of the Mabna Institute, an Iran-based company that conducted massive, coordinated cyber intrusions into computer systems belonging to at least approximately 144 United States-based universities” and compromised U.S. government agencies and “at least 36 private sector companies.”

The Mabna Institute’s principal targets were academic research institutions, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. It stole at “least approximately 31.5 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property” that “cost the affected United States-based universities at least approximately $3.4 billion dollars to procure and access,” the indictment stated...