US charges 17 Iranians in large-scale cyber theft campaign targeting universities

WASHINGTON, United States — WASHINGTON — The US Department of Justice has charged 17 Iranian nationals with carrying out a large-scale cyber data-theft campaign targeting hundreds of universities and government institutions. The department said the defendants targeted 144 US universities, 178 foreign universities, 42 companies and various government agencies. Investigators identified the theft of more than 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property. The department said some of the hacking operations were conducted on behalf of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, government units and Iranian universities. According to US media, Iran-backed hackers recently targeted municipal water systems in Minnesota, launching cyberattacks against roughly 30 water networks in July. Israeli cybersecurity firm Jumpshot attributed a separate attack on the Los Angeles city transportation system in March to Iranian hackers, saying the breach forced part of the system's network to be shut down. Jumpshot reported that more than 700 gigabytes of emails, backups and other files were stolen from the city's transit authority, and that the breach was discovered after the data inadvertently surfaced online. No further details were immediately available.