The Justice Department says three Iranian citizens have been charged in the United States with ransomware attacks that targeted power companies, local governments and small businesses and nonprofits, including a Pennsylvania domestic violence shelter
a ransomware attack on Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline, which disrupted gas supplies along the East Coast.with the FBI last year thwarting a planned cyberattack on a children's hospital in Boston“The cyber threat facing our nation is growing more dangerous and complex every day,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement accompanying the indictment unsealed Wednesday. “Today’s announcement makes clear the threat is both local and global.
The hackers named in Wednesday's indictment are not believed to have been working on behalf of the Iranian government but instead for their own financial gain, and some of the victims were even in Iran, according to a senior Justice Department official who briefed reporters on the case on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the department.
But the official said the activity, even if not directed by the Iranian government, exists because the regime permits hackers to largely operate with impunity. In a related action Wednesday, the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 10 individuals and two entities affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who it says have been involved in malicious cyber activities, including ransomware. The Treasury Department identified the three defendants in the Justice Department case as employees of a technology firm it says is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard.
John Hultquist, vice president for threat intelligence at the cybersecurity firm Mandiant, said his team has been tracking the Iranian actors for some time and assessed they are contractors for the Revolutionary Guard who have been moonlighting as criminal hackers.
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