{"id":90333,"date":"2018-03-23T15:21:51","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T15:21:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=6cc31000b06e49d6140e95c459828949"},"modified":"2018-03-23T15:21:51","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T15:21:51","slug":"news-story-foreign-office-minister-condemns-criminal-actors-based-in-iran-for-cyber-attacks-against-uk-universities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=90333","title":{"rendered":"News story: Foreign Office Minister condemns criminal actors based in Iran for cyber-attacks against UK universities"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Today the US indicted nine employees of the Mabna Institute based in Iran for a global hacking campaign targeting universities, including in the UK.<\/p>\n<p>Foreign Office Minister for Cyber, Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The UK Government judges that the Mabna Institute based in Iran was responsible for a hacking campaign targeting universities around the world.<\/p>\n<p>By stealing intellectual property from universities, these hackers attempted to make money and gain technological advantage at our expense.<\/p>\n<p>We welcome the US indictments. It demonstrates our willingness and ability to respond collectively to cyber-attacks using all levers at our disposal.<\/p>\n<p>The focus on universities is a timely reminder that all organisations are potential targets and need to constantly strive for the best possible cyber security.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Today\u2019s action is a further step demonstrating that malicious cyber activity will not go unpunished. Mabna Institute employees can no longer travel freely, curtailing their career prospects outside of Iran.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h4 id=\"notes-for-editors\">Notes for editors<\/h4>\n<p>The UK\u2019s National Cyber Security Centre assesses with high confidence that the Mabna Institute are almost certainly responsible for a multi-year Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) campaign targeting universities in the UK, the US, as well as other Western nations, primarily for the purposes of intellectual property (IP) theft.<br \/>\nToday\u2019s action comes after US law enforcement indicted other employees of the Mabna Institute in November 2017 for the hack and leak operation against TV company HBO.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"further-information\">Further information<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Follow Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on Twitter <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tariqahmadbt\">@tariqahmadbt<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/foreignoffice\">@foreignoffice<\/a> and <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/foreignoffice?ref=hl\">Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Follow the Foreign Office on <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/ukforeignoffice\/\">Instagram<\/a>, <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/ukforeignoffice\">YouTube<\/a> and <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/foreign-and-commonwealth-office?trk=biz-companies-cym\">LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"contact postal-address\" id=\"contact_193\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Media enquiries<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<p class=\"adr\">\n<span class=\"street-address\">For journalists <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"email\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Email<\/span><br \/>\n              <a class=\"email\" href=\"mailto:newsdesk@fco.gov.uk\">newsdesk@fco.gov.uk<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Newsdesk <\/span><br \/>\n              020 7008 3100\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The UK and its allies will respond collectively to criminal cyber activity that undermines economic prosperity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}