The Great Smoky Mountain Journal
Source: AP Wires, FOX
Tuesday, January 01, 2019 02:41 PM
Justice Department Charges Nine Iranians In Hacking Scheme
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and other law enforcement officials announced the case Friday.
Officials say the Iranians were working at the behest of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. They say the defendants were affiliated with the Mabna Institute, an Iranian company that for the last several years has contracted with the Iranian government to conduct hacking.
The defendants are unlikely to ever be prosecuted in an American courtroom because there's no extradition treaty with Iran. But the case is part of the government's "name and shame" strategy to publicly identify foreign hackers and put their countries on notice.
The Justice Department on Friday announced
an Iranian man was sanctioned for hacking information on unaired "Game
of Thrones" episodes and stealing personal information from HBO
employees' accounts.
Behzad Mesri was indicted in November after he attempted to extort HBO
for $6 million. The stolen content included what appeared to be scripts
from five "Game of Thrones" episodes, including an upcoming episode at
the time and a month's worth of email from the account of Leslie Cohen,
HBO's vice president for film programming. There were also internal
documents, including a report of legal claims against the network and
job offer letters to top executives.
Other nine Iranians were also arrested in a government-sponsored hacking
scheme that pilfered sensitive information from hundreds of
universities, private companies and government agencies.
The Iranian defendants are accused of working at the behest of the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
