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Criminal charges announced this week against multiple alleged hackers in Iran show the breadth of the cyber threat emanating from that country and the FBI and partner agency efforts to neutralize it and hold the individuals accountable.

The hacks included cyber intrusions and fraud, vandalism of U.S. websites, and intellectual property theft from U.S. aerospace and satellite technology companies. In each of the cases, the suspects were believed to be operating at the behest of the Iranian government, or in support of it.

While the cases filed in federal courts in Boston, Alexandria, and Newark are separate and unique, prosecutors and FBI investigators said they send a message that hackers will face consequences regardless of distance and borders.

No cyber actor should think they can compromise U.S. networks, steal our intellectual property, or hold our critical infrastructure at risk without incurring risk themselves, said Executive Assistant Director Terry Wade of the FBIs Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. The FBI will continue to work with our partners to protect U.S. interests and to impose consequences on those cyber actors working on behalf of the Government of Iran in furtherance of their nefarious goals.

On Tuesday, Behzad Mohammadzadeh, of Iran, and Marwan Abusrour, of the Palestinian territories, were indicted in Massachusetts on charges of damaging multiple websites as retaliation for U.S. military action in January that killed the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.

On Wednesday, Hooman Heidarian and Mehdi Farhadi, both of Iran, were charged in New Jersey in connection with a coordinated cyber intrusion campaign. Investigators allege that the pair, sometimes at the behest of the government of Iran, targeted computers in New Jersey and around the world.

In addition to stealing hundreds of terabytes of sensitive data, the defendants also vandalized websites, often under the pseudonym Sejeal, and posted messages that appeared to signal the demise of Irans internal opposition, foreign adversaries, and countries identified as rivals, including Israel and Saudi Arabia.

On Thursday, an indictment unsealed in Virginia charged Said Pourkarim Arabi, Mohammad Reza Espargham, and Mohammad Bayati, all living in Iran, with engaging in a coordinated campaign of identity theft and hacking on behalf of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated foreign terrorist organization.

According the charges, the defendants campaign began back in 2015. At one time, they had a target list of more than 1,800 online accounts, including those of aerospace or satellite technology and international government organizations in Australia, Israel, Singapore, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The three allegedly used social engineering techniques to make contact with those on the target list and assume their identities online. This allowed the defendants to send messages to other unsuspecting individuals that contained malware hidden in links and documents. The malware allowed the hackers access to many additional computer systems.

Also Thursday, the FBI released the details of eight separate and distinct sets of malware used by a front company in Iran to raise awareness of the threat and provide tools to help companies defend their computer networks. The company, Rana Intelligence Computing Company, helped Irans Ministry of Intelligence and Security, target at least 15 U.S. companies along with hundreds of individuals and entities from more than 30 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. The investigation led to the U.S. Department of the Treasury issuing sanctions against Rana and 45 cyber actors.

The efforts were reflective of the FBIs new cyber strategy, which is to impose risk and consequences on cyber adversariesmaking it harder for both cyber criminals and foreign governments to use malicious cyber activity to achieve their objectives. The new strategy also emphasizes the role the FBI plays as an indispensable partner to federal counterparts, foreign partners, and private-sector partners. We want to make sure were doing everything we can to help our partners do what they need to do, said FBI Director Wray. That means using our role as the lead federal agency with law enforcement and intelligence responsibilities to not only pursue our own actions, but to enable our partners to defend networks, attribute malicious activity, sanction bad behavior, and take the fight to our adversaries overseas.

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Iran at Center of Cyber Crime Charges in Three Cases | Federal Bureau of Investigation - Federal Bureau of Investigation

Iran's alleged intent to assassinate US Ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks is odd news, to say the least.

Marks has no obvious connection to the US assassination of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, for which this exposed plot would be retribution. Nor has South Africa figured significantly in the last four years' deterioration of US-Iran relations.

But whatever the reason for Marks' implication, this suspected plot should be a lesson for US foreign policy: Reckless interventionism will have unintended consequences, which means Washington's lack of restraint and diplomacy can unwittingly make the United States less secure.

For Americans preoccupied with election season and COVID-19, the Soleimani killing may seem like a storyline that ended months ago. It is not. Iran doesn't share our short political memory, and it is not surprising that the Iranian regime may not consider its deathless retaliatory strike on Iraqi military bases housing US troops an end to the affair.

Lana Marks in Soweto, South Africa, in June 2020. Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images via Getty Images

The step away from war Washington and Tehran chose at the beginning of this year was wise, particularly with the hindsight we now have regarding the pandemic.

Yet that pause should not be mistaken for any sort of resolution of the crisis which preceded it. This is not a dtente. We've managed to maintain a mutually hostile status quo instead of devolving into open conflict or forcible regime change, but US-Iranian relations are not mended.

On the contrary, all the context for the Soleimani strike and Iran's initial retribution measure remains intact eight months later. The Trump administration strategy's goal is still regime change.

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are still committed to "maximum pressure," which is successful only in exacerbating Iran's humanitarian needs and incentivizing further covert violence and regional trouble-making from a Tehran desperate to demonstrate it won't be cowed into submission.

The United States still has ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, flanking Iran with military deployments our president has said outright are useful for monitoring and, by implication, potentially attacking Iran "because Iran is a real problem."

Trump is also still backing Saudi Arabia in its brutal intervention in Yemen's civil war, simultaneously a proxy conflict with Iran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani still says he wants the US to rejoin the Obama-era nuclear deal Trump abandoned, but Iran's decision to increase its enriched uranium stockpile above the deal's limits in a bid for US concessions still hasn't led to productive negotiations.

Supporters of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani celebrate Rouhani's election victory, in Tehran, May 20, 2017. Ebrahim Noroozi/AP

Any appearance of resolution here was a mirage. The recent quiet from Iran is reportedly due to COVID-19 and attention to the US electoral calendar, not any new acquiescence to Washington's pressure.

Or, if our information on the Marks assassination plot is correct, Tehran has simply moved its antagonism out of sight since this past winter. The unintended consequences of our interventionist foreign policy weren't escaped or even suspended; we simply didn't see them for a little while.

Such repercussions can often be ignored in Washington because the sheer strength of the United States military, our natural geographic security advantages, and our unparalleled wealth make large-scale consequences like conquest unthinkable. There is no realistic scenario, for example, in which Iran could invade and vanquish the United States.

But that sort of conventional defeat is not the only risk belligerence and coercion toward Iran occasions. US military attacks on other countries' self-perceived core interests like assassinating a national hero in a position analogous to secretary of defensewill be met with retaliation.

The cost in blood and treasure will never do us existential damage, but it is not to be on that count dismissed or downplayed.

Supporters of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani celebrate after Rouhani's presidential election victory in May 2017. Majid Saeedi/Getty

Happily, this belligerence and coercion isn't necessary for our defense. We could trade threats and threat-inflation for deterrence and, eventually, effective diplomacy.

That's safe and feasible because Iran is not a substantial or imminent threat to the United States. It is a middling power already constrained by regional enemies (like Israel and Saudi Arabia). Its entire economy is exceeded by the Pentagon budget alone, and it receives wildly disproportionate attention in our politics and foreign policy.

For the US, the biggest danger connected to Iran is a risk of our own making: the possibility of yet another multi-decade war creating needless suffering and sapping American strength.

If Washington won't move toward restraint, living by the sword may not mean dying by the sword for the world's sole superpower, skirmishing against enemies armed with pocketknives. But enough small jabs will eventually bleed us dry.

Bonnie Kristian is a fellow at Defense Priorities, contributing editor at The Week, and columnist at Christianity Today. Her writing has also appeared at CNN, NBC, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and Defense One, among other outlets.

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Rumors of an Iranian assassination plot offer lessons that Trump can't seem to learn - Business Insider - Business Insider

An Iranian woman looks at her mobile phone outside a shopping mall in Tehran in 2019. ( Vahid Salemi/AP Images)

Iranian lawmakers have proposed banning all foreign-owned social messaging apps and replacing them with domestic versions run by the regime.

Dozens of lawmakers have signed the August 24 proposal to create a committee to license and monitor domestic social networking sites and impose punishments of up to two years in prison for violating the new rules, Radio Farda reports.

But as Irans regime moves to further restrict everyday Iranians access to the internet, many senior regime officials still freely use U.S.-based social media technologies to spout propaganda.

Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has several foreign language accounts on Twitter. He posted numerous tweets on September 1 bashing apeace deal between the United Arab Emirates and Israelas a betrayal of Arab nations that wont last long. Since then, Bahrain has also joined the UAE in normalizing ties with Israel.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also have active Twitter accounts. Butthe regime already blocks everyday Iranians access to Twitter, as well as Facebook and YouTube.

The move to further restrict internet access comes after the regimeblacked out the internet to mask its violent crackdownon nationwide protests in November. Regime forceskilled about 1,500 peopleand rights groups say the regime tortured protesters after the demonstrations.

The Iranian regimes security and intelligence agencies apply filters to disrupt internet connections or restrict access. Telegram, the most popular messaging app in the country, is often censored, according to Radio Farda.

Since 2005, Irans leadershave spent at least $4.5 billion to build a domestic intranetthat would block data requests from going outside the country and allow the government to censor content. Regime officials recently announceda deal with China to build the national intranet.

The proposal in Irans parliament, called Organizing Social Media Messaging, would establish a committee to license and monitor messaging apps. The committee of regime entities would include a representative of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a U.S.-designated terrorist organization that answers directly to Khamenei.

The plan would require that an Iranian citizen own at least 50 percent of any domestic app, which must be hosted in Iran and comply with the nations laws. Individuals or entities that produce a messaging app outside the law or distribute virtual private networks would be in violation.

The U.S. government supports the right of the Iranian people to the free flow of information through its policies, such as theU.S. Treasury Departments General License D1, which facilitates the use of personal communications services in Iran.

By U.S. Embassy Tbilisi | 17 September, 2020 | Topics: Human Rights, News | Tags: freedom of expression, Iran, technology

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Who gets to use messaging apps in Iran? - US Embassy in Georgia

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have the honour of speaking on behalf of France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

We would like to thank the Director General for his report contained in document GOV/2020/47 on the NPT Safeguards Agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

We commend the Agency for its continued and intense efforts over almost a year to engage Iran in a substantial dialogue to clarify information relating to the correctness and completeness of Irans declarations under its Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol. We appreciate the Director Generals intensive personal efforts aimed at securing access to two specified locations in Iran and clarifying questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material or nuclear-related activities in Iran.

We welcome the Joint Statement reached on 26 August between the Agency and Iran. The Statement paves a procedural way forward towards the resolution of the safeguards implementation issues specified by the Agency and towards implementation by Iran of its legal obligations to provide access to sites identified by IAEA.

We take note of Irans encouraging statements on its intention to further strengthen its cooperation with the IAEA, and that access to one specified location has already been provided and the date for access to the second location has been scheduled. Furthermore, we note that the Agency has also conducted an additional inventory verification activity at a facility in Iran, in line with the above-mentioned Joint Statement. We expect Iran to fully implement the Joint Statement and provide full access to the second site on the date agreed with the Agency.

We call on Iran to provide the IAEA with the requested information and clarifications needed to resolve all open safeguards questions, including on the origins of anthropogenic natural uranium particles detected by the Agency at an undeclared location in 2019. This is a matter of Irans legally binding safeguards obligations.

We have confidence in the robustness and comprehensiveness of standard practice whereby the Agency evaluates all available safeguards-relevant information, including third-party information. The IAEA has robust procedures in place to corroborate and verify the veracity of third party information.

We encourage the Agency to continue to provide updates on the aforementioned issues to the Board as appropriate.

For transparency reasons, we would welcome the publication of the Director Generals report contained in GOV/2020/47.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Published 18 September 2020

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E3 statement on NPT Safeguards Agreement with Iran - GOV.UK

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier safely transited on Friday through the Strait of Hormuz, the worlds most important chokepoint for oil shipments, the U.S. Navy said, as tensions with Iran continue to simmer.

In a scheduled maneuver, the U.S. sent the carrier and several other warships through the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, according to the U.S. Navys Bahrain-based 5th fleet. The Nimitz, Americas oldest carrier in active service, carries some 5,000 sailors and Marines.

American aircraft carriers have for decades sailed through the international oil shipping route in what the U.S. describes as defensive operations aimed at keeping the strait open.

The show of force follows months of escalating incidents in the crucial waterway, which led earlier this year to an American drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad. Tehran responded to that strike by firing ballistic missiles that wounded dozens of American troops in Iraq.

The Nimitzs arrival in the Mideast saw Iran conduct a live-fire drill targeting a mockup aircraft carrier resembling it, underscoring the lingering threat of military conflict between the countries.

The Nimitz strike group is at the peak of readiness, said Rear Adm. Jim Kirk, its commander.

The Nimitz, whose homeport is Bremerton, Washington, has patrolled the Arabian Sea since late July. It replaced the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which had spent months in the Arabian Sea on its deployment, breaking the Navys previous at-sea record. Navy officials have limited port calls due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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US carrier transits Strait of Hormuz amid tensions with Iran - Yahoo News