The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is asking the public to help them find three accused Iranian hackers who allegedly targeted U.S. officials, including now-President Donald Trump, as well as several people associated with the 2024 presidential campaigns.
The FBI identified the suspects as Seyyed Ali Aghamiri, Yasar Balaghi, and Masoud Jalili.
The agency said the men were accused of participating in “malicious” cyber activity associated with advanced persistent threat (APT) actors affiliated with the Iranian Government’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The alleged IRGC cyber activity targeted various individuals associated with the 2024 United States Presidential Campaigns, as well as personnel with a nexus to Iranian and Middle Eastern affairs, such as current or former senior government officials, senior think tank personnel, journalists, activists, and lobbyists from 2019 to present day,” the FBI announced late Wednesday afternoon.
They face the following charges, according to the FBI:
Conspiracy to obtain information from a protected computerDefraud and obtain a thing of valueCommit fraud involving authentication featuresCommit aggravated identity theftCommit accessDevice fraudCommit wire fraud while falsely registering domainsWire fraudAggravated identifyTheftAiding and abettingMaterial support to designated foreign terrorist organization
The FBI said federal arrest warrants were issued for the men nearly a year ago after they were charged with multiple cyber-related crimes in a “wide-ranging hacking campaign” that was sponsored by the Iranian government.
Christopher wray, who was the FBI director at the time, said the men impersonated U.S. government officials to steal confidential information.
Now, the FBI is hoping the public will help the agency track them down.
The agency urged anyone who has information about the men to call 1-800-225-5324 or submit a tip via http://tips.fbi.gov.