The U.S. State Department's Rewards for Justice program has introduced bounties of up to $10 million for any information that would help identify or locate six Iranians who led the state-sponsored CyberAv3ngers threat operation's attacks against several water utilities across the U.S. last year, The Cyber Express reports.
Intrusions by CyberAv3ngers against Unitronics programmable logic controllers used by U.S. water and wastewater systems were led by Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Head and IRGC-Qods Force Commander Hamid Reza Lashgarian and IRGC-CEC senior officials Hamid Homayunfal, Reza Mohammad Amin Saberian, Milad Mansuri, Mohammad Bagher Shirinkar, and Mahdi Lashgarian, according to the State Department. Such a development comes months after the IRGC-CEC officials were sanctioned by the Treasury Department for their involvement in cyberattacks. CyberAv3ngers' compromise of U.S. water utilities have since prompted increased federal action in strengthening the sector's defenses against cyberattacks.
