Info:
Mahmoud Mehri is among the 45 cyber actors are also being designated pursuant to E.O. 13553 for having materially assisted, sponsored, or providing financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS);
Added to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list maintained by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on September 17, 2020 pursuant to Executive Order 13553 for being connected to Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS);
The 45 designated individuals served in various capacities while employed at Rana, including as managers, programmers, and hacking experts. These individuals provided support for ongoing MOIS cyber intrusions targeting the networks of international businesses, institutions, air carriers, and other targets that the MOIS considered a threat;
Iran’s MOIS, through their front company Rana, recruited highly educated people and turned their cyber talents into tools to exploit, harass, and repress their fellow citizens and others deemed a threat to the regime. We are proud to join our partners at the Department of Treasury in calling out these actions. The sanctions announced hold these 45 individuals accountable for stealing data not just from dozens of networks here in the United States, but from networks in Iran’s neighboring countries and around the world;
The MOIS, camouflaged as Rana, has played a key role in the GOI’s abuse and surveillance of its own citizens. Through Rana, on behalf of the MOIS, the cyber actors designated used malicious cyber intrusion tools to target and monitor Iranian citizens, particularly dissidents, Iranian journalists, former government employees, environmentalists, refugees, university students and faculty, and employees at international nongovernmental organizations. Some of these individuals were subjected to arrest and physical and psychological intimidation by the MOIS. Rana’s targeting has been both internal to Iran and global in scale, including hundreds of individuals and entities from more than 30 different countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. Rana has used malicious cyber intrusion tools to target or compromise approximately 15 U.S. companies primarily in the travel sector;
The Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Iran is the primary intelligence agency of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a member of the Iran Intelligence Community. With a large budget and extensive organization, the MOIS is of the most powerful ministries in the Iranian government. MOIS is designated by the U.S. Treasury Department pursuant to E.O. 13224 for its support to Hizballah, HAMAS and al Qa’ida. MOIS is providing support to the Syrian regime’s violent repression of dissent in Syria. MOIS, like the IRGC-QF, and the Iranian LEF, has provided financial, material, or technological support to the Syrian GID, whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13572. MOIS is known to have used abhorrent methods of interrogation such as mock executions and forms of sexual violence. MOIS agents have also arrested and detained members of the Bahai religion without charges;
Industry:
Tech Industry
Iranian Hackers
Also Known As:
Mahmood, Mehri
Born:
19 Sep 1985
Country:
Iran
Address:
Ahar, Iran
Nationality:
Iranian
Passport:
F49959213 (Iran)