In a Twitter post by the US Treasury Department: “In a coordinated action across the U.S. Government, OFAC designated a dozen Iran-based persons for their roles in malicious cyber acts, including ransomware activity. The U.S., Australia, Canada & the UK are also publishing a joint cyber security advisory.”
The US Treasury Department announced the addition of nine individuals and six Bitcoin addresses to their cyber-related designations earlier today.
The list contains the name of some Iranians and their sanctioned Bitcoin addresses. The sanctioned list included Ahmad Khatibi Aghada, Amir Hossein Nikaeen, and seven other addresses under their watch.
According to the charges against the alleged Iranians in the US District Court of New Jersey, they partnered with Ahmad Mansour to commit conspiracy, fraud, and other computer-related activities. They were also accused of intentionally damaging protected computers and demanding monetary compensation using Bitcoin.
A tweet by the US Department of the Treasury stated:
“In a coordinated action across the U.S. Government, OFAC designated a dozen Iran-based persons for their roles in malicious cyber acts, including ransomware activity. The U.S., Australia, Canada & the UK are also publishing a joint cyber security advisory.”
The indictment was filed earlier by the US Department of Justice. It claimed that the hackers had been involved in illegal cyber activities since October 2020. The document also stated that Nikaeen and his company were conducting these operations from Iran, from where they accessed the computers in the US, UK, Israel, Russia, and other countries.
The hackers used “known vulnerabilities in commonly used network devices and software applications to carry out their exploits.” Nikaeen and his co-conspirators also used Microsoft’s Bitlocker to encrypt their target’s computers, demanding a ransom before allowing their victims regain access to their computers.
However, the US authorities were able to track the hackers’ Bitcoin addresses hackers, thanks to the transparent nature of the network.
Finally, in a statement by Philips Sallinger, US attorney for New Jersey,
“By charging them in this indictment, by publicly naming them, we are stripping their anonymity away. They cannot operate anonymously from the shadows anymore. We have put a spotlight on them as wanted criminals.”
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