DOJ Indicts Iranians For Cyberattacks On Banks

Seven Iranians who were employed by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-affiliated entities were indicted on charges of computer hacking related to numerous coordinated distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against the U.S. financial sector, the U.S. Department of Justice reported.

In a press release posted on Thursday (March 24), the DOJ confirmed that the individuals were charged by a grand jury in the Southern District of New York and are accused with launching an extensive campaign of DDoS attacks against 46 victims between late 2011 and mid-2013.

One of the accused was also charged with obtaining unauthorized access to the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems of the Bowman Dam in New York during August and September of 2013.

“In unsealing this indictment, the Department of Justice is sending a powerful message: that we will not allow any individual, group, or nation to sabotage American financial institutions or undermine the integrity of fair competition in the operation of the free market,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said.

“Through the work of our National Security Division, the FBI, and U.S. Attorney’s Offices around the country, we will continue to pursue national security cyber threats through the use of all available tools, including public criminal charges. And as today’s unsealing makes clear, individuals who engage in computer hacking will be exposed for their criminal conduct and sought for apprehension and prosecution in an American court of law,” she continued.

According to the DOJ, the attacks distributed by the accused individuals not only disabled victim bank websites, but also barred customers from gaining access to their online accounts. The impacts of the attacks reportedly cost victims tens of millions of dollars in order to remedy the situations and mitigate the attacks on their servers.

“Like past nation state-sponsored hackers, these defendants and their backers believed that they could attack our critical infrastructure without consequence, from behind a veil of cyber anonymity,” Assistant Attorney General Carlin explained. “This indictment once again shows there is no such veil – we can and will expose malicious cyber hackers engaging in unlawful acts that threaten our public safety and national security.”