US authorities announced Wednesday (September 14th) that they have indicted three Iranian hackers for ransomware attacks targeting hundreds of entities around the world, including a shelter for victims of domestic violence or a children's hospital.
Mansour Ahmadi, 34, Ahmad Khatibi Aghda, 45, and Amir Hossein Nickaein, 30, are accused of having carried out a series of cyberattacks since October 2020 in the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, Russia, but also inside Iran, according to the indictment released Wednesday.
This document, not mentioning any connection with the Iranian government and the federal police, argues that the "
main
" purpose of these cyberattacks was personal enrichment.
The Department of State and Treasury, however, ensure that they are part of a group of pirates "
affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards
", the ideological army of Iran.
Ten million dollar reward
In separate press releases, these two ministries announced that they were sanctioning them, along with seven other Iranians and two Iranian companies.
The State Department is offering a ten million dollar reward for any information leading to their location.
“
This shows our determination to prevent any ransomware attack against our infrastructure
,” commented US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken.
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The three men are likely to be in Iran, a senior Justice Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
Specifically, they are accused of having targeted hundreds of computer networks around the world.
In the United States, their targets include small businesses as well as an electricity company, a children's hospital in Boston, municipalities or the association representing American lawyers (ABA).
Each time, they exploited the flaws in the system to encrypt the data of their victims and demanded the payment of several thousand dollars in exchange for the decryption key.
Some accepted: the shelter for battered women, located in Pennsylvania, thus paid 13,000 dollars to recover its data and prevent their disclosure.
“
They engaged in hacking, computer theft and extortion primarily for personal gain
,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a video posted on the Federal Police website.
Christopher Wray announces the publication of a bulletin on the "
broader risk posed by cyber actors affiliated with the Iranian state
", also adopted by the authorities of Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.
The Iranian regime is regularly accused of being responsible for cyberattacks abroad, which it denies.
Albania's government recently severed ties with Tehran, blaming it for a massive campaign against its digital infrastructure and then its police.