i'd like to make a point before i turn over the microphone to jeffrey berman. first, every sector of our economy is the target of malicious cyberattacks. anyone who owns a computer needs to be village -- vigilant to prevent attacks. targets.ons are prime universities can thrive as marketplaces of ideas and engines of research and development on if their work is protected from theft. events highlight the need for university and all organizations to emphasize a cyber security, increase threat awareness, and heart and computer networks. the second important point is that our work on this case is critically important because it will disrupt the activities of the institute and will deserve similar crimes by other perpetrators. this kind of public identification helps to deter state sponsored computer intrusions by stripping hackers of anonymity and by imposing .eal consequences revealing the institutes nefarious actions make it harder for them to do business. additionally we are going to help neutralize their hacking infrastructure. by bringing in these criminal cha

my name is jeffrey berman. i am the united states attorney for the seventh district of new york. today, in one of the largest state-sponsored hacking campaign sever prosecuted by the department of justice, we have en masse criminals who normally work in total anonymity hiding behind the ones and zeros of computer code. this massive and brazen cyber assault on the computer systems of 144 euros universities 176 foreign universities in 21 countries and dozens of government organizations and private companies, this was conducted on behalf of the iranian governments islamic revolutionary guard or i rgc. his indictment alleges it was leaders of the madden institute. the company that conducted this assault and then sold to illegal foods. the company was set up in 2013 by two defendants. while the company's name may sound legitimate, the so-called institute was set up for one reason only. to steal scientific resources from other countries from around the world. the global campaign operated in three parts. university campaign, private company hacks and nongovernmental entity hacks. with r