WASHINGTON: The Trump administration imposed criminal charges and sanctions on Friday against Iranians accused in a government-sponsored hacking scheme to pilfer sensitive information from hundreds of universities, private companies and American government agencies.

The nine defendants, accused of working at the behest of the Iranian government-tied Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, hacked the computer systems of about 320 universities in the United States and abroad to steal expensive science and engineering research that was then used or sold for profit, prosecutors said.

The hackers are also accused of breaking into the networks of dozens of government organisations, such as the Department of Labour, the United Nations and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and companies including law firms and biotechnology corporations.

The Justice Department said the hackers were affiliated with an Iranian company called the Mabna Institute.

“By bringing these criminal charges, we reinforce the norm that most of the civilised world accepts: nation-states should not steal intellectual property for the purpose of giving domestic industries an advantage,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said in announcing the charges.

The Treasury Department targeted the Mabna Institute and 10 Iranians the nine defendants and one charged in a separate case last year for sanctions that will bar them from doing business in the United States.

The defendants are unlikely to ever be prosecuted in an American courtroom since there’s no extradition treaty with Iran. But the grand jury indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan is part of the government’s “name and shame” strategy to publicly identify foreign hackers, block them from travelling without risk of arrest and put their countries on notice.

Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2018