Friday 23 March 2018

Trump Administration Moves Against Iranian Institute for Theft of University Information


US Department of Treasury and US Department of Justice charge Iranians and Iranian research institute with theft of intellectual property from universities throughout the world.  The press release from the US Department of Treasury names the Iranians.  Specifically, the press release states:

Today’s action designates one Iranian entity and 10 Iranian nationals pursuant to E.O. 13694, as amended, which targets malicious cyber activities, including those related to the significant misappropriation of funds or economic resources, trade secrets, personal identifiers, or financial information for private financial gain.

The Mabna Institute is an Iran-based company that engaged in the theft of personal identifiers and economic resources for private financial gain. The organization was founded in or about 2013 to assist Iranian universities and scientific and research organizations in obtaining access to non-Iranian scientific resources. The Mabna Institute also contracted with Iranian governmental and private entities to conduct hacking activities on its behalf.  

The Mabna Institute conducted massive, coordinated cyber intrusions into computer systems belonging to at least approximately 144 United States-based universities, in addition to at least 176 universities located in 21 foreign countries:  Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.  The exfiltrated data and stolen login credentials acquired through these malicious cyber-enabled activities were used for the benefit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and were also sold within Iran through at least two websites. The stolen login credentials belonging to university professors were used to directly access online university library systems.  

Today, OFAC is also designating nine Iran-based individuals who were leaders, contractors, associates, hackers for hire, and affiliates of the Mabna Institute for engaging in malicious cyber-enabled activities related to the significant misappropriation of economic resources or personal identifiers for private financial gain.

According to a Reuters article, this type of action was relatively rare under the Obama Administration. 


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