US Charges 17 Alleged Iranian Hackers Over Global Cyber Campaign

August 19, 2026
By Mintesinot Nigussie

US prosecutors have charged 17 alleged members of the Iran-based Mabna Institute over a cyber campaign that targeted hundreds of universities, companies and government bodies and resulted in the theft of more than 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property.

A 14-count superseding indictment, unsealed on Tuesday, expands charges first brought against nine defendants in 2018 and adds eight more people to the case.

According to the indictment, the group targeted 144 US universities and 178 universities in other countries, as well as at least 42 US companies, 11 foreign companies, five US federal and state government agencies and several non-governmental organisations.

Prosecutors allege that many of the attacks were carried out on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian government and university clients.

The Mabna Institute allegedly began its operations in 2013, using hackers and contractors to gain unauthorised access to university systems, corporate email accounts and other computer networks.

The group targeted more than 100,000 professors worldwide and successfully compromised about 8,000 academic email accounts, according to the indictment.

The stolen credentials were allegedly used to access academic journals, research papers, theses, dissertations, electronic books and other research materials. The group is accused of stealing about 31.5 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property.

US universities had spent more than 3.4 billion US dollars to procure or access the data and intellectual property targeted during the alleged conspiracy, prosecutors said.

The indictment also alleges that the stolen academic resources were sold through Iranian websites, including Megapaper.ir and Gigapaper.ir. One platform allegedly sold stolen academic materials, while another allowed customers to access university library systems using compromised accounts.

Beyond universities, the alleged campaign targeted organisations including the US Department of Labor, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the governments of Hawaii and Indiana, the United Nations and UNICEF.

Several defendants are also accused of involvement in attacks against private companies, including Home Box Office, or HBO. One defendant, Behzad Mesri, had previously been charged separately over the alleged hacking of HBO and an attempt to extort the company for about 6 million US dollars in Bitcoin.

Prosecutors said the alleged attacks on private companies and government bodies caused victims more than 20 million US dollars in investigation and remediation costs.

The US State Department is offering rewards of up to 10 million US dollars for information leading to the location of five of the defendants.

John Eisenberg, assistant attorney general for national security, said the indictment described a campaign to steal research and intellectual property from institutions in the US and elsewhere.

Source: FSX Business News