$10 Million Bounty on Iranian Hackers for Cyber Attacks on US Gov, Defense Contractors

Four Iranians are accused of hacking into critical systems at the Departments of Treasury and State and dozens of private US companies.

Four Iranian nationals were indicted in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, charged with conducting a sophisticated cyber-espionage campaign targeting U.S. government departments, defense contractors, and private firms.

The accused, still at large, are accused of targeting and hacking into critical systems at the Departments of Treasury and State and more than a dozen private US companies with access to defense-related information.

The four Iranians — Hossein Harooni, Reza Kazemifar, Komeil Baradaran Salmani, and Alireza Shafie Nasab — are accused of participating in a malware operation using spear-phishing and other hacking techniques to harvest hundreds of thousands of corporate employee accounts.

“During their campaigns against one victim, the group compromised more than 200,000 employee accounts. In another campaign, the conspirators targeted 2,000 employee accounts,” the Justice Department said ...