The US federal prosecutor’s office on Friday dropped criminal charges against three Iranian citizens who are believed to be working with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to target current and former officials in order to steal sensitive data.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) charged 36-year-old Masoud Jalili, 34-year-old Seyed Ali Aghamiri, and 37-year-old Yasser (Yasser) Balaghi in a conspiracy with other known and unknown figures undermine the US electoral process.
Supposedly they have hacked in accounts current and former US officials, members of the media, non-governmental organizations and individuals associated with political campaigns in the US. None of the three operatives, who are members of the Basij Resistance Force, have been arrested.
“This activity was part of Iran’s ongoing efforts to incite discord, undermine confidence in the US electoral process, and illegally obtain information about current and former US officials that could be used to advance the IRGC’s rogue activities, including ongoing attempts to avenge the death of Qasem Soleimani , former commander of IRGC-QF (IRGC-QF),” Ministry of Justice said.
The activity, according to the Ministry of Justice, involved gaining access to non-public campaign documents and campaign-related emails around May 2024. The conspirators then engaged in hacking and information leakage operations the following month, sharing stolen campaign materials with media publications and persons associated with another presidential campaign.
The development comes nearly two weeks after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) blame Iranian members of the threat for stealing non-public materials from former President Trump’s campaign and giving them to President Biden’s campaign and the American media.
“These hacking and exfiltration efforts by Iran are a direct attack on the integrity of our democratic processes,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
“Iranian government actors have long sought to use cyber means to harm US interests. This case demonstrates our commitment to exposing attempts by the Iranian regime or any other foreign entity to interfere in our free and open society.”
Jalili, Aghamiri and Balaghi were also accused of running a large-scale hacking campaign that began as early as January 2020 to infiltrate victims’ computers and online accounts using a combination of phishing and social engineering techniques.
This included using fake identities to trick users into clicking on malicious links and spoofing login pages to obtain account credentials, and using compromised victim accounts to send phishing messages to other targets. The Justice Department said some of those efforts have been successful.
The trio were charged with 18 counts, which include conspiracy to commit identity theft, aggravated identity theft, access device fraud, unauthorized access to computers to obtain information from a protected computer, unauthorized access to computers for the purpose of fraud and receiving a valuable thing, and fraud.
According to the indictment, the State Department has offered a reward of up to $10 million for information about Jalili, Aghamira and Balagi, KIEV interference in US elections or related individuals and organizations.
The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions against seven individuals for their malicious cyber activities, including phishing, hacking and information leakage operations and their alleged involvement in political campaigns –
- Masoud Jalili
- Ali Mahdaviyan, Fatemeh Sadeghi, Elahe Yazdi, Syed Mehdi Rahimi Hajiabadi, Mohammad Hossein Abdalrahimi and Rahmatullah Askarizadeh (staff and managers Emenet Pasargad)
It should be noted that the US Govt previously sanctioned six other employees of the same company in November 2021 for their attempts to interfere in the 2020 US presidential election.
“The Iranian regime is increasingly trying to influence the outcome of the upcoming U.S. election because it believes the outcome will affect U.S. foreign policy toward Iran,” the State Department said. said.
“Iranian state-sponsored actors have engaged in various malicious cyber activities, such as hacking and information leakage operations and phishing, in an attempt to undermine confidence in the United States’ electoral processes and institutions, and to influence campaign political policies.”
In August, Iran denied allegations that it played any role in the hack, calling them baseless and that “Iran’s cyber power is defensive and proportionate to the threats it faces,” Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported. informed.
Indictment last efforts by the US government to counter foreign attempts to interfere in future elections. Lately too brought criminal charges and sanctions against employees of Russian state media RT for allegedly funding pro-Trump figures on social media in the US
