State Department Announces $10 Million Reward as Investigation Exposes Large-Scale Theft of Intellectual Property and University Research
The US Department of Justice has officially unsealed new and updated charges against 17 individuals associated with an Iranian company accused of orchestrating sweeping cyberattacks and data theft targeting U.S. universities, private corporations, and government agencies.
According to federal officials, the suspects worked in connection with the Mabna Institute, an entity that executed targeted hacking campaigns on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps alongside other Iranian government and academic clients.
Scope of the Cyber Campaigns
Federal investigations revealed that the targeted campaigns compromised hundreds of domestic and international universities, dozens of U.S. companies, and at least five state and federal government bodies. Between 2013 and 2017, the Mabna Institute targeted more than 100,000 professor accounts globally, successfully penetrating roughly 8,000 email accounts across 144 U.S. universities and 178 institutions in other countries.
This latest action builds upon a prior indictment from March 2018, which initially charged nine of the 17 individuals for a hacking campaign directed at the U.S. Labor Department, the United Nations, and computer networks in Hawaii and Indiana.
Official Response and Rewards for Information
Commenting on the scope of the operation, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jamie McDonald noted that the newly unsealed charges expose the broader network allegedly responsible for a state-sponsored campaign aimed at stealing sensitive research and intellectual property from American institutions.
In tandem with the DOJ announcement, the U.S. State Department’s Rewards for Justice program announced a $10 million reward for information leading to the location or identification of key individuals named in the charges. Representatives for the Iranian government at the United Nations did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and contact information for the Mabna Institute remained unavailable.
