The U.S. Department of Justice has charged 17 Iranians in connection with a widespread cyber theft campaign that allegedly targeted American universities, private companies, and government agencies for years.

According to the DoJ, members of the Iran-based Mabna Institute conducted a coordinated campaign to steal data from the computer systems of 144 U.S. universities and 42 private sector firms since at least 2013. The group is accused of stealing more than 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property valued at approximately $3.4 billion.

FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C Barnacle, Jr. described the cyber attacks as a significant threat to national security. The DoJ stated that many of the attacks were conducted on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other Iranian government and university clients. "Backed by the IRGC, this operation reflects a broader, organised effort to target US institutions and global partners," Barnacle said.

The Mabna Institute, founded in 2013, allegedly aimed to help Iranian academic organizations gain unauthorized access to non-Iranian scientific resources. The campaign is reported to have targeted the accounts of 100,000 academics globally, successfully compromising 8,000 professor email accounts at 144 U.S. universities and an additional 178 academic institutions internationally. The theft campaign reportedly continued until at least December 2017.

In addition to academic targets, the Mabna Institute is accused of compromising employee email accounts at at least five U.S. federal and state government agencies. Private companies in the U.S., as well as 11 foreign companies in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, were also targeted.

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jamie McDonald highlighted the growing role of cyber operations as a tool of national power and warned of their detrimental impact on U.S. security and the economy. The Department of Justice announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the location of five of the alleged hackers-for-hire who have been charged.

Nine of the 17 individuals charged in this announcement had previously been indicted in March 2018 on seven counts.