Amir Barati, a 40-year-old dual citizen of Turkey and Iran, has been extradited from Montenegro to the United States, where he faces charges tied to a sweeping academic hacking campaign. Barati was arrested in June after the FBI issued a warrant, and a Montenegrin court approved his extradition this week. He is one of 17 people named in a 14-count indictment accusing them of running the operation through the Mabna Institute on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Prosecutors say Barati played a central role in spearphishing campaigns that compromised roughly 8,000 professor email accounts between 2013 and 2017. The stolen credentials were used to breach universities and research institutions worldwide, netting at least 31 terabytes of academic journals, theses, and other intellectual property. The indictment alleges the group targeted 144 American universities, 42 U.S. companies, and hundreds of foreign institutions, with damages estimated at $3.4 billion. Universities alone reportedly spent about $20 million on investigation and remediation.
According to Iran International, Barati has a long history as a hacker in Iran, having founded groups accused of attacking Microsoft and MIT. The outlet reported that he was arrested by Iran's Intelligence Ministry in 2010 and coerced into working for them for years. He later left Iran, changed his name, and obtained Turkish citizenship in 2021. Barati now faces multiple counts of conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, wire fraud, and identity theft.