Trump administration charges Iranians for international cyber theft

Thomson Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Friday charged nine Iranians and an Iranian company with attempting to hack into hundreds of U.S. and international universities, dozens of companies and parts of the U.S. government on behalf of the Iranian government.

The cyber attack pilfered more than 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property from 144 U.S. universities and 176 universities in 21 foreign countries, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

The U.S. Treasury Department said on its website that it was placing sanctions on those accused and the Mabna Institute, a company described by U.S. prosecutors as designed to help Iranian research organizations steal information.

(Reporting by Dustin Volz and Lisa Lambert; editing by Susan Heavey and Grant McCool)

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