The U.S. Justice Department announced an expanded indictment against 17 Iranian nationals linked to the Mabna Institute, an Iranian company accused of carrying out cyberattacks on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other entities since at least 2013.

According to the indictment, the network hacked approximately 8,000 accounts belonging to professors at 144 universities in the United States and 178 universities around the world, stealing more than 31 terabytes of research and intellectual property.

The hackers are also accused of breaching systems belonging to private companies and government agencies. One defendant is additionally charged with attempting to extort HBO for $6 million in Bitcoin. The United States is offering rewards of up to $10 million for information leading to the location of some of the defendants.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)