US Charges 17 Iranians in Global Hacking Campaign Targeting HBO and Thousands of Accounts

The US Department of Justice has indicted 17 Iranian nationals for orchestrating a global hacking campaign on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian entities. The accused, linked to the Mabna Institute based in Tehran, have been active since 2013, breaching approximately 8,000 accounts belonging to academics in the United States and Israel. Their cyberattacks extended to email accounts of employees at American and European companies, as well as various governmental and international organizations.

Among the victims was the HBO network, from which hackers stole scripts, including those from the series "Game of Thrones." The group attempted to extort around six million dollars in Bitcoin from HBO. In response, the US government has offered a reward of up to 10 million dollars for information leading to the identification and capture of those responsible.