Security News > 2020 > September > U.S. Charges Two State-Sponsored Iranian Hackers

Two Iranian hackers were indicted in the United States for allegedly engaging in numerous cyberattacks, some of them conducted on behalf of the government of Iran, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.

The two, Hooman Heidarian, 30, and Mehdi Farhadi, 34, both of Hamedan, Iran, were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and wire fraud, unauthorized access to protected computers, unauthorized damage to protected computers, access device fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

Starting in at least 2013, the two launched coordinated attacks on an aerospace company, a defense contractor, several American and foreign universities, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., foreign governments, a foreign policy organization, non-governmental organizations, and non-profits.

Many of the attacks were allegedly conducted in the interest of the Iranian government, targeting highly protected and extremely sensitive data related to national security communications, foreign policy, aerospace, financial and personally identifiable information, non-military nuclear data, intellectual property, and human rights activists.

"Using these methods, the defendants stole hundreds of terabytes of data, including confidential victim work product and intellectual property, and personal identifying information, such as access credentials, names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and birthdates. The defendants marketed stolen data on the black market," the DoJ says.

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