The United States Department of Justice announced charges against nine Iranians accused of stealing private data from U.S. universities, private companies and U.S. government agencies.
FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich said in a statement that the state-sponsored hackers worked for more than four years to steal expensive science and engineering-related research, company trade secrets, and sensitive U.S. government information.
The stolen information was used by the Iranian government or sold for profit, said the FBI. According to the indictment, the hackers stole more than 30 terabytes of academic data– IP that totaled $3.4 billion for the U.S. universities to procure.
