A US $10 million reward is being supplied to anybody who has details about 4 members of an Iranian hacking group.
The US authorities’s Rewards for Justice initiative is making the reward out there for details about 4 males believed to be members of Shahid Hemmat, a hacking gang backed by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Cyber-Digital Command (IRGC-CEC).
The Iranian hackers are accused of launching malicious assaults in opposition to varied important elements of United States crucial infrastructure, together with water amenities, power infrastructure, and manufacturing vegetation.
Shahid Hemmat has been linked, for example, to the hack of a booster station on the Municipal Water Authority in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, in November 2023, the place a pump on a supply-line offering consuming water to close by cities was shut down.
The water system’s Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), made by Israeli agency Unitronics, displayed a dramatic picture:
“You may have been hacked. Down with Israel. Each tools ‘Made in Israel’ is Cyber Av3ngers authorized goal”
Inside days, American cyber defence company CISA had issued a warning to the water sector that Unitronics PLCs with uncovered ports to the web had been being actively exploited.
The advisory really helpful strongly that default passwords needs to be modified on weak PLCs to sturdy, distinctive alternate options, and multi-factor authentication enabled, amongst different measures.
On the similar time, it was reported that hackers had attacked a brewery management system, interrupting the manufacturing of beer.
The Shahid Hemmat hacking group has claimed accountability for cyberattacks in opposition to amenities in Israel since 2020, typically utilizing the identify “Cyber Av3ngers,” and has reportedly been linked to a different IRGC-hacking group often called Troopers of Solomon.
The reward of as much as US $10 million is being supplied for info resulting in the identification or location of Manuchehr Akbari, Amir Hosein Hoseini, Mohammad Hosein Moradi, and Mohammad Reza Rafatinezhad.
Up to now the Rewards for Justice programme has tried to draw responses by providing “relocation and rewards funds by cryptocurrency” for “eligible sources” – recognising that a few of these with details about individuals of curiosity could want the next degree of safety, and maybe even assist beginning a brand new life.
Suggestions will also be submitted by way of encrypted messaging app Sign or by way of its Tor-based tipline. Rewards for Justice says that it reads each tip it receives, and that messages may be despatched in a number of languages.
Extra info may be discovered on the official Rewards for Justice web site.
