Iranian national extradited to US by Montenegro over alleged $3.4B cyberattack case
An Iranian man, Amir Barati, has been extradited to the United States from Montenegro in a rare legal victory for law enforcement. The extradition occurred on October 1, following Montenegrin police's arrest of the suspect at the FBI's request in June. Barati is one of 17 Iranians indicted on wire and computer fraud charges in August, all members of Mabna Institute, an Iran-based company notorious for state-sponsored hacking activities.
According to the indictment, the group carried out a $3.4 billion hacking campaign from 2013 to 2019, targeting over 144 U.S. universities, 42 private companies, five government agencies, and 178 foreign universities and companies. The attack resulted in the theft of 31 terabytes of data and the compromise of 8,000 email accounts.
Iran allegedly received the stolen data, which was then used to benefit the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other Iranian organizations. Barati is accused of assisting in tracking the progress of the hacks and creating "targeting lists" for private sector attacks. This extradition marks a rare instance of an accused Iranian hacker facing U.S. courts and is seen as a significant win for law enforcement.
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