U.S. charges Iranians who allegedly hacked banks, infiltrated New York dam

The United States on Thursday charged a group of alleged Iranian hackers authorities believe carried out a series of Tehran-backed cyber attacks on dozens of U.S. banks and infiltrated the supervisory control system of a small New York dam between 2011 and 2013.

An indictment, announced by Attorney General Loretta Lynch during a press conference streamed live from Washington, lists charges against seven Iranians, including three nicknamed "Nitr0jen26," "PLuS" and "Turk Server." 

Lynch said the alleged carried out the attacks with the support of Iran's government and with the sole purpose of undermining American companies and damaging the U.S.'s free market system.

The indictment is one of the highest-profile U.S. indictments against a foreign nation on hacking charges. The U.S. has previously publicly attributed cyber attacks on large U.S. companies to Chinese and North Korean hackers.

Investigators believe the alleged Iranian hackers, employed by two companies, were contracted by the Iranian government to attack 24 financial institutions, including Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange, Bank of America, Capital One Bank, U.S. Bank, among many others. Lynch said the attacks caused victims "tens of millions of dollars."

The U.S. charged one of the Iranians, Hamid Firoozi, with obtaining unauthorized access to the control systems of the Bowman Dam in Rye, about 30 miles north of New York City. In doing so Firoozi was able to access information regarding water levels and the sluice gate that controls flow rates, which "could have posed a clear and present danger" to Americans, Lynch said.

Having such access would typically allow someone to control the sluice gate, but coincidentally at that time it had been manually disconnected for maintenance. 

The U.S. has voiced concerns about the vulnerability of the country's infrastructure to cyber attacks. A cyber attack on Ukraine's power grid in December that cut electricity to 225,000 customers marked the first time civilian infrastructure was intentionally attacked and underscored the very real nature of such a threat. 

"No matter how hard [hackers] work to hide their tradecraft, we will pierce their shield."

The cyber attacks came after the U.S. and Israel covertly sabotaged an Iranian nuclear facility with a sophisticated computer worm called Stuxnet.

While charged in the U.S., the alleged hackers are believed to be residing in Iran. Still, FBI Director James Comey, speaking with Lynch, vowed to track them down and bring them to justice.

"The FBI will find those behind cyber intrusions and hold them accountable -- wherever they are, and whoever they are," Comey said, suggesting that the FBI would be prepared to nab them should they travel outside Iran.

In the meantime, Comey said the FBI would continue to fight against hackers targeting the U.S. He said Thursday's indictment sends a message to them.

"No matter how hard they work to hide their tradecraft, we will pierce their shield," Comey Said.

You can read the indictment below.

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