US Broadens Iran-Linked Hacking Case to 17 Defendants Over HBO's $6M Bitcoin Ransom Plot

The US government has expanded an eight-year-old hacking case linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, adding eight defendants and tying six of them to a 2017 HBO breach that included a $6 million Bitcoin extortion attempt.

Prosecutors allege the Mabna Institute, a private company based in Iran, carried out cyber intrusions on behalf of the IRGC and other Iranian government, university, and private-sector clients. The group targeted more than 100,000 professor accounts, compromising about 8,000 and stealing at least 31.5 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property.

The HBO breach led to an attempted Bitcoin extortion after hackers allegedly stole unreleased television episodes, scripts, and other proprietary material. Prosecutors said the demand began at $5.5 million and rose to roughly $6 million before stolen HBO content was leaked online.