Iranian hackers with links to the Tehran government carried out a series of attacks on universities in an attempt to steal secrets, authorities in the US and UK said.
The National Cyber Security Centre assessed with "high confidence" that the Mabna Institute was "almost certainly responsible" for the campaign targeting universities in the UK, US and other Western nations.
In the US, the Justice Department announced charges against nine Iranians and listed them and the Mabna Institute for sanctions.
US deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein said: "These nine Iranian nationals allegedly stole more than 31 terabytes of documents and data from more than 140 American universities, 30 American companies,...