The United States has offered up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of Amir Yaryab, a senior official in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Cyber-Electronic Command (IRGC-CEC).
The U.S. State Department’s Rewards for Justice program said Yaryab heads the IRGC-CEC’s Cyber Operations Command and oversees several cyber groups, including Shahid Hemmat, Shahid Shushtari, and CyberAvengers.
Washington accused the groups of conducting cyber and information operations against critical infrastructure in the US, Europe, and the Middle East, targeting sectors including defence, energy, shipping, aviation, finance, and telecommunications. The State Department also said some of the groups had used malware against civilian infrastructure worldwide.
The announcement comes weeks after the U.S. Department of Justice charged 17 Iranian nationals over an alleged long-running cyber theft campaign linked to the Mabna Institute and the IRGC.
According to the DOJ, the operation targeted 144 U.S. universities, 178 foreign universities, 42 U.S. companies, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations. Investigators said more than 31 terabytes of academic data and intellectual property were stolen.
The charges stem from alleged cyber intrusions that began in 2013, with the US accusing the defendants of conducting hacking operations on behalf of Iranian government and university clients, including the IRGC.
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