Montenegro and FBI Arrest Iranian Suspect in $3.4 Billion University Hack Linked to IRGC
Montenegrin police and the FBI arrested Amir Barati, a 39-year-old Iranian national wanted by the United States for a hacking campaign that allegedly targeted more than 150 American universities and caused $3.4 billion in damage, according to Montenegrin police. Barati was taken into custody at a resort in the coastal town of Kotor on a U.S. warrant issued out of New York, authorities reported. The operation is linked to a wider investigation into cyberattacks benefiting Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which FBI officials have long associated with efforts to harvest credentials from academic institutions.
The indictment details overlap significantly with the 2018 charging of the Mabna Institute, an entity the U.S. designated as a front for IRGC-backed hacking operations that compromised accounts at 144 U.S. universities and 100,000 professors worldwide. Barati is not listed on the FBI's 2018 wanted poster for the Mabna case, though his alleged crimes share the same target profile, timeframe, and reported $3.4 billion damage estimate, which Montenegrin police cited as the basis for the arrest. U.S. authorities have not explicitly confirmed a direct link between Barati and the Mabna operations, but the convergence suggests a continuation of the investigation into Iranian state-sponsored theft affecting the U.S. higher-education sector.
From the sources (5 posts)
@iranintl_enMontenegrin police and the FBI have arrested an Iranian national wanted by the United States over a major hacking campaign that allegedly targeted US universities and benefited Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Reuters reported.
@nypostMontenegro police, FBI arrest Iranian wanted by US for hacking
@faytuksnetworkMontenegrin police, with the U.S. FBI, have arrested an Iranian national suspected of hacking attacks that caused $3.4 billion in damage to U.S. infrastructure, Montenegrin police say.
@osint613A joint FBI-Montenegrin police operation led to the arrest of an Iranian national suspected of conducting hacking attacks against U.S. infrastructure. The cyberattacks are estimated to have caused $3.4 billion in damage, according to Monten
@marionawfal🇲🇪🇮🇷🇺🇸 An accused IRGC hacker who targeted 150+ American universities just got arrested, at a beach resort in Montenegro. The numbers are staggering: $3.4 billion in damage. Stolen credentials allegedly funneled straight to Iran's Revoluti