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Four Iranian nationals were indicted Tuesday for allegedly being part of a multi-year “malicious cyber ops” campaign targeting the U.S. State and Treasury departments, defense contractors and two companies in New York.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed the indictment in a Manhattan federal court, charging Hossein Harooni, Reza Kazemifar, Komeil Baradaran Salmani, and Alireza Shafie Nasab with computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and other charges.
Along with the unsealing of the indictment against the four conspirators, the U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program (RFJ) announced it was offering up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of the group and the defendants, the DOJ said.
The Treasury Department also announced sanctions against the four conspirators and other cyber actors.
He also allegedly used a real person’s passport to conceal his role in the campaign.
Salmani, like Kazemifar, tested the tools used to execute hacking campaigns, including that used against a hospitality company.
Nasab is accused of creating the infrastructure used in social engineering campaigns in which women were used to gain confidence from victims before deploying malware on their computers and devices.
All four conspirators were charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud. They face up to five years in prison for computer fraud conspiracy and up to 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
The DOJ said Harooni was also charged with knowingly damaging a protected computer, which has a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison if found guilty. The DOJ charged Harooni, Salmani and Nasab with aggravated identity theft, as well.
