New York: Seven
hackers, who are allegedly linked to the Iranian government for a campaign of
cyber-attacks targeting 46 financial institutions and a New York dam between
2011 and 2013, were charged by the US government on Thursday.
Beginning in 2011, the Iran-based
hackers targeted the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, Bank of America Corp.,
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and AT&T Inc., among others, according to an
indictment unsealed on Thursday in Manhattan Federal Court. One of them
gained unauthorized remote access to a computer controlling the Bowman Avenue
Dam in Rye, New York, for about three weeks beginning in 2013, according to the
indictment.
Thomas Brown, a cyber-security
specialist at Berkeley Research Group and a former federal prosecutor said:
“This indictment is the first of its kind because it calls out a foreign
nation-state for supporting hackers who directly attacked US critical infrastructure
and financial markets.”
US attorney general
Loretta Lynch became the first law enforcement official to accuse specific
Iranians of engaging in cyber-attacks against US infrastructure on Thursday.
Although Lynch and other officials didn’t say what may have motivated the
hackers, the incidents followed imposition of US sanctions on Iran’s government
and a cyber-attack on Iran’s nuclear program, which is believed to be carried
out by the US and Israel.
The allegations mark a
shift in US-Iranian relations after a relative detente as the two countries
negotiated a nuclear treaty. Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations,
Gholam-Ali Khoshroo on Thursday declined to comment on the indictment.
No comments:
Post a Comment