Security News > 2022 > September > Iran steps up its cybercrime game and Uncle Sam punches back
The criminal charges come as Iran has apparently stepped up its malicious activity against America and its allies - exploiting well-known software vulnerabilities to conduct espionage, deploy ransomware, steal money, data and credentials and good old-fashioned election misinformation and meddling, according to the government and private security firms.
The trio are accused of conducting a hacking campaign to break into computer systems of "Hundreds of victims" in the US, UK, Israel, Iran and other countries, according to court documents [PDF].
The Google-owned threat intel firm's VP John Hultquist told The Register the indictment "Focused on the criminal activity of Iranian actors Mandiant has tracked for some time. We believe these organizations may have been moonlighting as criminals in addition to their status as contractors in the service of the IRGC.".
In addition to the criminal charges, the three Iranian residents are among 10 slapped with sanctions by the US Treasury Department for their alleged affiliation with Iran's IRGC and related criminal deeds - including facilitating ransomware attacks.
The sanctions come less than a week after the US Treasury Department issued sanctions against a different group, Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security, and its Minister of Intelligence.
A joint cyber security advisory from the Department of the Treasury, FBI, NSA, USCYBERCOM, Australia's Cyber Security Centre, the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, and the United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Centre highlights "Continued malicious cyber activity by advanced persistent threat actors that the authoring agencies assess are affiliated with IRGC." .