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Nov. 28, 2018 / 4:58 PM GMT
By Minyvonne Burke
The Department of Justice indicted two Iranian citizens on accusations they carried out high-profile ransomware attacks that hit hospitals, municipalities and public institutions across the United States.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the indictment Wednesday during a press conference calling the attacks a “high-tech, sophisticated, extortion plot.”
He said the suspects, Faramarz Shahi Savandi, 34, and Mohammad Mehdi Shah Mansouri, 27, allegedly hacked into computer systems and shut them down until a ransom was paid. They collected more than $6 million in extortion payments in bitcoin, he said.
The ransomware attacks, which began in December 2015, targeted the cities of Newark, New Jersey, and Atlanta, Georgia. Rosenstein said Savandi and Mansouri also allegedly tried to interrupt transportation by infiltrating the Port of San Diego and Colorado’s Department of Transportation.
Hospitals in Illinois, Maryland, Nebraska, Kansas and North Carolina were also targeted.
One of the attacks involved Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angles in February 2016, which first raised the nation’s consciousness to this kind of cyber strike.
“Many of the victims were public agencies with missions that involved saving lives and performing other critical missions for the American people,” Rosenstein said.
Savandi and Mansouri allegedly gained access to the computer networks by using a form of ransomware they call SamSam. Rosenstein described the ransomware as “malicious compute code that encrypts the victims computers and then holds the computer hostage.”
He said it doesn’t allow the victims to access the computers “until they agree to pay a ransom payment.”
There were over 200 victims, prosecutors said. Damages amounted to more than $30 million.