Iran Counters US Hacking Indictments Of 7 Iranians

Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson reportedly has dismissed the US Department of Justice's announcement that it has indicted seven Iranians for hacking charges related to attacks on banks and a New York dam server.

According to Bloomberg, Hossein Jaberi Ansari said the US shouldn't be pointing fingers: The US "is not in any position to charge citizens of other countries, not least Iran’s, without providing any documentary evidence,” Ansari told reporters, according to Iran's Students’ News Agency, Bloomberg reports.

"Iran has never had dangerous actions in cyberspace on its agenda nor has it ever supported such actions,” Jaberi Ansari said. He also pointed to the US's role in Stuxnet, which he said placed "the lives of millions of innocent people" in possible harm's way had the attacks wrought a nuclear accident.

DoJ last week announced that Ahmad Fathi, 37; Hamid Firoozi, 34; Amin Shokohi, 25; Sadegh Ahmadzadegan, aka Nitr0jen26, 23; Omid Ghaffarinia, aka PLuS, 25; Sina Keissar, 25; and Nader Saedi, aka Turk Server, 26; allegedly launched DDoS attacks against 46 organizations—mainly US financial institutions--from late 2011 and mid-2013.

Firoozi also is charged with hacking into the dam’s computer system between August and September 2013. The seven Iranians were employed by ITSecTeam (ITSEC) and Mersad Company (MERSAD), both of which were working for the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard.