On Tuesday, the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) announced charges against 17 Iranian hackers for reportedly trying to gain access to and steal research, data, and intellectual property from a wide range of American universities and businesses. The announcement was made on X:
17 Iranians charged with conducting massive cyber theft campaign on behalf of the IRGC and other Iranian entities: the Mabna Institute hackers attacked systems belonging to hundreds of universities, companies, and other victims to steal research, academic and proprietary data,…
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) August 18, 2026
The X post reads:
17 Iranians charged with conducting massive cyber theft campaign on behalf of the IRGC and other Iranian entities: the Mabna Institute hackers attacked systems belonging to hundreds of universities, companies, and other victims to steal research, academic and proprietary data, and intellectual property.
The SDNY press release, also released on Tuesday, lists the charges.
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jamie McDonald, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, John A. Eisenberg, and Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), James C. Barnacle, Jr., announced today the unsealing of a 14-count Superseding (“S2”) Indictment charging 17 members of the Mabna Institute, an Iran-based company that, since at least 2013, conducted a coordinated campaign of cyber intrusions into computer systems to 144 U.S.-based universities, 178 foreign universities, at least 42 U.S.-based private sector companies, at least 11 foreign private sector companies, at least five U.S. federal and state government agencies, and at least two non-governmental organizations (“NGOs”). Through the defendants’ activities, the Mabna Institute stole more than 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property from universities, and the email accounts of employees at private sector companies, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations.
These people were working on behalf of one of the few remaining functional governing organizations left in Iran: The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC.
Through the defendants’ activities, the Mabna Institute stole more than 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property from universities, and the email accounts of employees at private sector companies, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations. The defendants conducted many of these intrusions on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s (“Iran”) Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (“IRGC”), one of several entities within the government of Iran responsible for gathering intelligence, as well as other Iranian government and university clients.
The Mabna Institute has been doing this for some time, and they haven't just been targeting American interests. Companies and academic institutions in Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom were also hacked. This has, according to the press release, been going on since at least 2013, so Democrats can't blame President Trump for this one, not that they won't try.
Here's the catch (there's always a catch): The Mabna Institute is in, unsurprisingly, Tehran. That catch? Where are these people? There's no indication in the press release. Are they (presumably) in Iran? That would make this indictment seem rather symbolic, at best.
Here's the thing: The United States almost certainly has more and better hackers than Iran. A little "sauce for the goose" would seem to be in order. Iran can't have much in the way of data or intellectual property to steal, but they probably still have government and military cyber-systems operating. Let's target those. Let's bring about Stuxnet II, Return of the Killer Stuxnet. Let's send their cyber-capability back to 1975. Granted, 1975 would be a big leap forward for Iran in most things, but not in this.
This is another area in which we should be playing hardball.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are once again respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.
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